


Saltwater

by AnnsGhost



Category: Dreamwastaken, GeorgeNotFound - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Sapnap - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF, mcyt
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:55:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 32,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28981461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnsGhost/pseuds/AnnsGhost
Summary: George arrives at the house, nervous about the Dream Team living together from now on.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)
Kudos: 22





	1. The smell of pine trees

Pebbles clatter under the tires of Georges two bright blue suitcases. He is tired and his heavy backpack doesn't help either. The long flight and car drive bothered him more than he initially thought. He looks up. In front of him is a small mansion, dark wood, large windows, white highlights and a big garden behind, one that he couldn't fully see yet. A slight breeze brushes through him, containing the smell of the nearby pine trees. Nick locks the car and quickly catches up to George. George gives him a tired smile as his friend takes both suitcases and drags them to the house. George still doesn't understand how Nick was younger than him, yet bigger and so much mor enthusiastic. He briefly brushes trough his dark hair, taking a last look at the cloudy sky before following his friend inside.  
-  
“How do you like it?” Nick smiles wide.  
Stunned, George looks around the hallway. The house is welcoming, the walls and floors made out of wood or stone, the colors and design of the interior carefully chosen, the warm air. A glimpse at the nearby rooms and up the stairs warms Georges heart, the colors of his new home remind him of his parents house. George puts down the pet crate. His dog slowly tiptoes out as he opens it and starches itself before looking at Nick with big eyes and a wagging tail. Patches sits on the stairs, gaze fixated on the dog. Nick bends down and lets Georges dog sniff his hand.   
-  
“Its one comfy place, right?” Nick looks up to George, who nods wholeheartedly. Nicks brown hair and eyes look even lighter trough the yellow-ish lights of the hallway. “Come on, George, I´ll bring you to your room. You´re probably too tired to really look around anyway”, he says.  
-  
George smiles at him, thankful that they know each other so well. Up the stairs, down another hallway with still empty picture frames. First door to the left, George lets himself drop in the bed. It´s a minimalistic, plain room with much space for George to eventually build up his own little place. Nick quickly places down the suitcases and leaves George to rest, closing the door behind him quietly.  
-  
Nick makes his way down the stairs, Patches loud meows, demanding food, eco over to him. He hurries to the kitchen and fills op her bowl. The cat tends to overreact a bit if Clay stays away for longer periods of time. “I know you miss him, he´ll be back soon” he calmly says, running his hand trough her fur, Patches pushes her body against his hand. Soon enough, Georges dog comes running in the kitchen, head down to sniff at all new smells, almost tripping over its own ears. It quickly drinks the water out of the bowl Nick puts on the floor and then proceeds to venture into the other rooms of the house.  
-  
Nick makes himself a sandwich and puts one in the freezer for George later. Maybe he should have made one before, but George seems to need some sleep more now. In his head, Nick already plans out the following days, hopefully to help George find a home here sooner.


	2. The sound of waves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Georges gets first impressions of the area.

Georges eyes flutter open slowly. He sits up and rubs his eyes. The sun is just about to rise. Wide awake, George decides to take a cold shower. Back in his room, he tries to decipher whether it´s going to be warmer than yesterday or not. Patches has followed him through the house, now looking at him with her big round eyes as trying to remember if she´d seen him before, but always avoiding him trying to pat her.  
-  
George put on a simple pale blue and short sleeved shirt. Like his Minecraft-skin, Iconic. He huffs amused. Cool air fills the room as George opens the window. Right as he leaves his room, he hears Nicks quiet voice calling for Patches. At which point the cat sprints down the stairs and into the kitchen. “Gogy!” Nicks voice springs back to normal volume as the older one enters the room. He was wearing a white crop top with a black, long-sleeved shirt underneath and gray pants, over the shirt as well. George looks around. The kitchen is pale, a bit minimalistic looking. The walls are covered with white tiles. Bright beams of the morning sun coming through the large window fills the whole room with a warm yellow. Eggs prickle in a pan on the stove, the smell fresh bread lies in the air. A basket with bread and a bottled milk rest on the kitchen-island, made of light wood, maybe birch. Two plates in hand, Nick steps down two steps and puts them on the main table. George just noticed that the kitchen´s floor itself is higher up than the rest. He likes it.  
-  
“Sit down, it´ll take a bit still” he says, before continuing to cook, so George takes a seat. The kitchen and the living room are almost fully connected, the living room floor is made of wood, not stone, the wall doesn´t have tiles anymore. The wall one faces once entering the kitchen is mostly large windows or glass doors into the backyard, reaching all the way to the living room, only sometimes interrupted by an actual piece of wall, crimson red bricks. The living room itself seems verry warm with a comfortable looking couch.  
-  
George takes a hungry bite out of the egg and bread. He didn´t even realize he was that hungry. Nick slowly chews on his toast. “Tasting good?” he asks after swallowing. George nods while taking another bite. Nick is on his phone while his friend enjoys his big breakfast, checking social media. He is on Twitter, seeing their fans tweets. “Where’s Dream? Is he taking a break? He´s not on any socials! George is busy too?” things like that. Nick knows that George doesn´t want to make him already moving in public. And Clay is in Florida, visiting his family and picking up some remaining stuff he hadn´t taken with him. He left the day before George arrived. Nick couldn´t shake the feeling that Clay was nervous, just thinking about the three of them meeting in about 3 days for the verry first time in person fills Nick with excitement.   
-  
“Clay is in Florida?” George asks again as they clean up the table and bring the dishes in the sink. Nick nods, the british seems to drift of in his thoughts. “He didn´t say anything to me about my flight or anything”. Nick looks at him confused, Clay does ask him regularly if he needs anything about the house, temperature and so on. “Well, he might´ve forgot or overslept” Nick dismisses, he doesn´t want to think of the possibility that George might not grow to be a part of their new home. “Let me take you somewhere.” Nick quickly suggests “Let´s take a walk with your dog. Do you think he likes the water?”  
-  
Georges dog pulls on its leash, eager to run to every palm tree or pine tree growing aside the road. The streets are clean, aside from a few bumps on the roads, caused trough the bigger trees roods growing under the pavement. The houses behind brick and stone fences are similarly pale, white walls and wooden details, only a few houses are remarkably colored. Those ones, George assumes, are hotels or apartments, since they seem much more modern and relatively big with many rooms.  
-  
Soon the three of them reach the end of the road. They already heard people talking from afar. This part of town is much more alive. Supermarkets, shops, restaurants, you name it. Most of the people walking around seem to be tourists, even though it was relatively early for shopping. Nick takes George a while along the street as well, before taking a turn in a quiet street again.  
-  
The weather was similar to yesterday, cloudy with the sun coming through from time to time. It was warm though and it seems to rise. A light breeze brushes by George as they walk on a road with relatively less houses. The breeze smells salty. Georges mood lightens up and Nick giggles.  
-  
The sand is still a bit clumpy from a slight rain shower from last night. George takes of his sandals and walks on the wet sand near the water. Sometimes thin, slow waves reach him. Nick walks on the dry part of the sand and Georges dog gets of the leash and runs around in front of them. The two walk along the water for a bit, Nick seems to be leading to a long formation of small rocks up ahead. All the while talking about many different things, sometimes pretending to fight friendly. “You actually are shorter than I thought” Nick teases and gets water kicked his way. George comes along some deeper parts in the water every now and then, he enjoys the fresh waves against his skin. “I didn’t realize I missed the beach” George mumbles loud enough for Nick to pick up. “Once its warm we have to go for a swim, it´s the best thing to do against the hot weather anyway” Nick suggests.  
-  
George peeks over the wall of stones and sees the ground descending a bit, leading to a small segment of the beach. It is also the end of the beach, water on one side, rocks, grass and small palm trees on the other and behind them just the normal beach. Nick walks down a small path in the slope and onto the sand below, the dog follows him. The british goes last. The sand under his feet is wet and soft, its ebb and this part must be under water once its flood. In the middle of the wet sand there sits a small lighthouse. George goes to it, amazed. Its red with a white stripe in the middle and a bit rusty. Its stone stilts are overgrown by moss and oysters. The lighthouse itself is only 3 times bigger than Nick. “Its beautiful here” George breathes, his gaze wanders off to the dry sand. Cool shades under the palm trees and a few rocks to sit, he turns to Nick. “Clay and I found this place pretty early, there are barely any people coming here. Its neat” Nick raves. The dog digs around in the soft sand.  
-  
The sound of the people is even louder as they arrive back at the busy street. Nick stops in front of a convenience store, Georges dog shakes the sand out its fur. “I´m in the mood to cook, what do you want to eat for lunch?” Nick asks, pulling the purse out of his sweatpants pockets. George thinks for a bit before replying “Yeah, you´re actually are a good cook. Hm…”. Nick plays offended “Of course, how can you think otherwise?”. “I thought I would have to get us food all the time” George says. “You can´t even cook.” Nick teases. George scoffs “I can. Better than you”. “Nah dude, prove it” he challenges his friend. George counters with a simple “Oh I will, I make breakfast tomorrow”. Nick giggles and George has to smile. “Alright, I go get some things, you should wait outside, dogs are not allowed” the younger one says and hurries inside.  
-  
Patches watches Nick with big eyes as he starts to prepare the sauce for their pasta. “You just ate” he tells her, she just flicks her tail. “Please don´t jump at me” he sighs. George is upstairs in his room, getting his equipment set up, messing around with the green screen. There where still many personal things he planned to put in his room, but he decided, the streaming equipment is priority. Nick had planned a stream later in the evening, Jackbox with Karl, Quackity and possibly Ranboo and he wanted to join in. He himself wouldn´t stream, he imagined it would simply be too exhausting having to entertain the stream on his own and having to show his facecam.   
-  
Nick began to set his streaming stuff up, sitting on the spacious kitchen table. He even had enough space for George sitting there, eating some cereal as a snack while taking a break from setting up his room. “You playing too?” Nick asks him while simultaneously typing on his keyboard. George nods, his mouth is full. He turns off his phone and puts it down on the table. “Is it still going to take long until you get live?” He asks and takes another spoon full. “Another 30 or 20 minutes maybe…?” Nick thinks.   
-  
It´s dark out. Georges headphones blare with laughter from the others about their stupid inappropriate jokes. He quickly leaves his chair to close the blinds on his window. While he´s on it, he also opens his door in case his dog or Patches wants to come inside. Patches doesn´t like him yet, him and Nick always try to get her attention and she would always choose Nick over him. He sits down again but doesn´t really manage to pay attention to the game. All the time he doesn´t have to speak, his mind wanders off. He looks around his room, imagining what he could do with the empty spaces. He has an empty corner, the best thing he can think of is a big dog bed. Maybe Patches would even come in his room than. The others were having a blast while George just stopped listening and at some point, just saying his goodbyes and leaving.  
-  
His ears hurt, he puts his headphones down and drinks some water, he thinks about continuing editing a new video. There is nothing else to do, so might as well, he thinks to himself and gets to work. Editing sucks the last bits of energy out of him, he has more troubles than expected. In the end, he saves the file, saves it again just to be sure, shuts down his computer and heads to the bathroom. He doesn’t take long, he feels the weight of his body the longer he stands. He doesn´t even bother to dry his hair as he crawls in bed. The pillow is so cool and the blanket so soft. He didn´t even realize he was that tired. He only moves around a bit before finding a comfortable spot and upon closing his eyes he almost instantly drifts out of conscious. The soft sound of Nick moving around the house, getting ready to go to sleep himself, barely reach him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English isn´t my first language so I hope it doesn´t sound too bad. Anyways ty for reading!


	3. The taste of watermelons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George grows to like the area.

Fluffy pancakes piled up on top of each other, maple sirup dripping down on the white plate. A piece of melting butter on top and a drizzle honey. Together with fresh strawberries, sprinkled with powdered sugar. Nicks eyes widen. The smell waters his mouth. He takes the first bite even before George got to pick his plate up and sit down. “That is actually delicious!” Nick is amazed. George smiles proud. “It´s a recipe from my mother.” He brags. Nick nods in admiration.  
-  
Georges mind drifts off once again. Nick had shown him the whole house, including the small basement. Entering the house is the main hall, in the top right there are stairs to the first floor. The door to the left leads to the kitchen, which is already kind of connected to the living room. The door to the bottom right of the room opens into the garage, it´s usually locked. There are also two doors in the wall you face once entering the house, under the staircase. One connects to the living room, one goes down to the basement. The top right corner leads directly into a corridor. Two doors to the left, Clays room and one bathroom. One door to the left, Nicks room. The end of the corridor has yet another door, into their garden. Upstairs has 5 rooms. To the left of the stairs Georges room as well as a storage room. To the right a still empty room and the second bath of the house. This bathroom will eventually only be used by George. Nick and Clay have the one downstairs. A small room right behind the stairs is a pantry.  
-  
“Sap I- “George interrupts himself. He still calls his friend “Sapnap” out of habit sometimes. He can just imagine how long it will take him to get used to “Clay”. At least when they´re out in public he should start saying “Dream”. Nick puffs smiling. “Anything you want to do today?”  
-  
The air quickly warms up. George and Nick hadn´t even noticed yet, they had begun making a video together. They sit in front of each other on the kitchen table, playing Minecraft.  
At first, they record a small video for Nick. “Minecraft but Georgenotfound controls everything” was Nicks idea. George basically got to throw a bunch of modded features at Nick while he tried to speedrun. They honestly hat a lot of fun. Every time George had set up something dumb in the world, he pears over his Laptop screen to look at Nick and giggle. After getting enough footage, they both hop on the Dream SMP, preparing things for their next streams.  
-  
They eventually lose interest in playing any longer. George shuts off his laptop and Nick goes through the footage, checking that nothing had been corrupted. The british goes to open one of the windows and is immediately hit by warm air. He shuts it again, meeting a confused look of his friend. “I think its cooler inside” he announces. Nick opens up the weather report on his laptop. “It´s colder tomorrow, today weather stays like this.” He concludes and looks up at George, asking “Do you want to go for a swim?” George thinks. “I think today is a wood day to see if my dog likes swimming or just digging in sand” he answers, to which his dog, sleeping in a small bed starts wagging its tail.  
-  
The sun quickly warms the water. Distant voices from many people on the far away beach sections. Nick sits in waist deep water, calling for Georges dog. The dog holds eye contact with him, not crossing the line between dry and wet. George stands next to him, the water barely reaching over his ankles. “Sit down and pretend you drown, maybe he´ll come” Nick suggests. His friend sighs. “I won´t get my clothes wet. Besides, I´m not going to force him to swim.” He answers, a bit frustrated. Nick watches as George makes his way out of the water. The older one wasn´t wearing swimming trunks like he did. George wears shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Nick felt a bit childish, already partly dried hair again. “If you would maybe dress like everyone else at the beach, you wouldn´t be so pale” he murmurs, meeting only ignorance. George picks up his dog and brings him over to Nick, who holds it. He slowly brushes its fur with wet hands to make it used to it. Soon the dog begins to make swim motions with its front legs against Nicks arm, so he lets go. Once the dog swam past George it could stand again, its legs still submerged in water. Nick seems to have successfully interested Georges dog in swimming, as it began to play around with the gentle waves.  
-  
Water splashes near the small lighthouse. While Nick tries to grab onto the rusty fence on the side of the lighthouse’s platform, George snacks on a few fruits they packed inside their cooling box. Nick slips on one of the stilts, lets go of the fence and falls into the water. George almost chokes on an apple slice in surprise. He only starts laughing once his friend comes towards the shore again, certainly not hurt. Nick frowns. George pats on the beach towel and grins. Nick sits down next to him and starts rubbing through his soaking wet hair. “Stop” George complains. “You´re making my clothes wet!” Nick scoffs “I know.” George offers the younger one some of the fruits. Nick takes a sliced watermelon and slowly bites in the cold pulp. Its watery, sweet and tastes fresh. Nick makes an approving sound, so George takes a slice himself. “Oh, they´re really good” he confirms. He lets his gaze wander over his sleeping dog, then Nick and eventually out the sea. The sun dances on the waves, a salty breeze gently blows toward the coast. George closes his eyes. He wants to hold on to this moment. He wants to remember it. Because the calming feeling of belonging slowly seeps into his heart.  
-  
“Let´s just order pizza”- “Fantastic idea”. Nick answers the door and brings the pizzas over to the table. A hungry George waits. Nick tries some of Georges pizza and the other way around. They share the third pizza they ordered in case they were still hungry, but they didn´t even make it through half of it. George puts the remaining slices into the fridge. Right after he pours cat food in Patches bowl, hoping to warm up with her, only to be completely ignored once again. Nick watches the scene giggling. “Shut up Nick.”  
-  
The sun sets in pale blue and yellow. Cotton candy clouds shimmering reflect the last beams of the sun. George silently watches the pale sky fade into a deep blue and eventually into a dark grey. There are no stars, despite no big clouds. The city illuminates the sky too much. George sighs and the door behind him opens. “Are you ready?” Nick pears inside the room. George assumes he was already dressed and probably ready.  
-  
Noises from all around them. Brightly lit displays, stores, restaurants. Music, laughing, talking. Nick hands George a cup of vanilla ice cream, with a small waffle and a plastic spoon. “There is an arcade hall not far from here” Nick suggests, happily eating his hazelnut ice cream. They walk past many people, most of them talking in languages George didn´t understand. He finished his ice cream as they arrive at the hall, inside it is loud. Music, sound effects from many different games, people cheering and talking. Nick shows him some old Arcades: Pacman, Street Fighter, Donkey Kong, you name it. The hall is big, not only old arcades are there. Claw machines, pinball machines, redemption games, billiards and air hockey tables scattered around the ground floor. Many local kids and tourists run around, cheerfully playing new machines. Most of the adults were either trying their luck on claw machines or worse, upstairs by all the slot machines. Confused, George watches someone trying to get a plush pig for their girlfriend as he and Nick walk by.  
-  
“Those aren´t based on luck at all” George complains once they walk inside again. Nick raises an eyebrow and shakes his head in agreement. “People are dumb dude” is all he says. They spent a lot of time challenging each other to beat high scores or own set speed runs. They´ve lost track of time almost instantly. By the time they set foot in their house again it´s far past 2 am.  
-  
George is far from tired though. He knows he should wake up at a descend time by morning or else his sleep schedule will be all over the place and that would mean a few sleepless nights for days on end. So he takes a hot shower, which thankfully makes him sleepy. He lets his mind wander as he drifts out of consciousness. Including just 3 hours old today, Clay will arrive in two days. George hopes everything will be just like it used to be. There was nothing to suspect they wouldn´t be able to live together. They all were such close friends. For some reason, George wouldn´t lose his nervousness. He bans those thoughts out of his head as he falls into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I´m not quite sure what I want to really do with this story, but i have some ideas planned. Also sorry for not using complicated language still.  
> Anyways ty for reading!


	4. The color green

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George gets used to his new everyday life. Until...

Another day passes, a day full of George working on his room and editing. He didn´t get enough sleep that night, but he woke up not feeling tired at all. This is just his fourth day here, excluding the afternoon of his arrival. Yesterday was colder, but today is warm again. Nick suggested trying surfing or diving the other day and George was intrigued. Not today though, today felt like a sleepy day. A small walk through the small forest area nearby, which they drove through to get from the airport to the town. Or maybe just walking around town a bit.  
-  
A quiet part of town. Sprawling fields, big palm trees and a forest on a slight hill in near distance. Seemingly abandoned power lines along the pathway. The beautifully blue sky had a few slow-moving planes with contrails thicker than the few pale clouds. George can see far, the houses behind him, the forest in front, the beach on their left and fields to the right. The small forest creates a cool shade, the air is humid, the floor dry. Leaves and pine needles crunch under their feet. George assumes the woods must thrive in a lush green, even though he can´t see that color. They wander around a bit, finding clearings and even small slopes. Nick, of course, crawling around, not caring about any thorny bushes or lose ground. George is constantly worried that Nick could trip and hurt his ankles because George certainly couldn´t carry him out of those slopes. Eventually they turn and head back.  
-  
Once out of the trees, they decide to go along another pathway leading to the beach. It is an old segment, the sand is crumbly and partly overgrown with thin gras. On the shore George even finds a big shell. He picks it up and shows it to Nick. “Nice George” he says but George is in too good of a mood to respond to his teasing tone. They walk in the sand until they reach a spot where the beach is interrupted through a big section of water. A relatively wide but shallow river quietly runs in the sea. On the other side of that river and after a small curve, behind palm trees and a hill, George can see the tip of their lighthouse. Now he recognizes where they are. Nick leads them upstream until they reach an old bridge which they cross and soon they´re surrounded by the houses of the village again.  
-  
After a quick stop at their house to get bags and money Nick and George walk to one of the big stores in their area to buy food and other supplies. On top of that, George can finally buy a floating mattress, one of the big ones. Their daily supplies are things they pay together, evenly split. The mattress is a thing George buys by himself, even though they´ll all use it eventually. Basic groceries are first in line now. They walk through the aisles and buy noodles, rice, bread, that stuff. George picks up a mattress that looks like a diagonally cut watermelon. Nick likes that motive too and agrees to pay half of it. It takes a bit longer until they´re able to get the things out of the cart, pay, pack inside the bags and head home on foot. It took them so long that both are a bit hungry already. George looks at his phone: 1 pm. They went out to the store almost 2 hours ago. Nick speeds up a bit.  
-  
He drove past the tree line, the first houses of the city already in sight. The radio is turned down a bit, his head is still a little bit fuzzy from him sleeping in the plane. Clay took an early flight, he wanted to be home by midday. He was still late, but at least it wasn´t already getting dark. It´s warm in the car and he doesn´t even notice the open window isn´t helping.  
-  
The car slowly rolls in the garage, parking next to Nicks car. Clay gets out of the car, opens the trunk and takes out his suitcase. He rummages for the keys is his pocket for a bit. As he unlocks the door and steps inside the main hall, he is immediately greeted by Patches. She walks around him, purring loudly and bumping her head against his legs. Clay puts the suitcase down and picks her up, she happily rubs her head against him. “Nick!” he calls out in the silent house. Cautions, Georges dog comes down the stairs and sniffs in his direction, wagging its tail slowly. Clay looks at it without saying anything. “George?” he shouts, again met with silence. He clears his throat and puts Patches down. He knows he confused the dates of Georges arrival, he didn´t even write him. And saying anything the day after would´ve felt wrong. He needs to apologize, but right now, he cares about bringing the boxes with his stuff in his room. He looks at the clock. 12 am.  
-  
Nick opens the door. “Let´s get cooking right away” he mumbles. George notices a faint melody once stepping inside. He recognizes the tune, but he can´t quite put it. He dismisses it, taking off his shoes as Nick suddenly stops. As George turns around, he locks eyes with someone peeking outside the kitchen. He freezes amongst seeing the unfamiliar face. Tanned skin, dark and light freckles on his cheeks, green-brown eyes now looking at Nick, who seems pleasantly surprised. He´s wearing a bright green shirt, more tight than oversized. As the person steps in the hall, brushing their hand through muddy-blonde hair, realization suddenly hits George. Happy, Nick puts the begs down. Clays eyes wander to George. George is paler than he expected, very few light freckles on his cheeks that he never noticed before, but he´s about as small as he thought. His eyes are darker than Nicks chocolate-eyes, same goes for his hair. The few seconds of silence feel like minutes until Nick pulls George to him and hug both Clay and him. Clay doesn´t move until he feels Georges arms wrap around him as well.  
-  
George shoves a spoonful rice in his mouth. He tries not to think about how he really doesn´t look like the oldest one here. Nick told him they both work out or do sports. George pouts a bit. They are Minecraft youtuber, being fit literally only matters in case of showing of-despite the fact that George tried to build up some muscles and he´s still as thin as always. At least he feels comfortable like he is, Nick and Clay can be how they want, even though he would like to try workouts, would be good for him. Relief sets in.  
-  
Clay switches through the channels on tv. George sits on the opposite of the couch, against the back of the couch, facing Clay, not the tv. He´s snuggles in one of the blankets. It has a rather raw texture, but it feels so comfortable, even soft and chilly. George begins to feel tired. He scrolls on his phone, trough Twitter or Reddit, but from time to time his eyes wander over his display. He briefly looks at Clays face. It doesn´t feel like all the times Clay, Nick and him talked on Discord until late. Nick was outside for a late jog, even if it was dark already. If the man in front of him doesn´t speak, he soon finds himself wondering when he will recognize Clay by something different than his voice. In that moment Clays eyes wander onto him, smiling embarrassed. “Why are you staring…” his voice sounds overall different from what George was used to trough his headphones or phone. Clay also sounds a bit tired and quieter than usual. “Well, Dream- “George quickly interrupts himself with “Clay. I just…still need to get used to this now.” Clay turns towards the tv again. “You´ll get used to seeing me and Nick every day. It´ll be sooner than you think” he comments. George already breathes in to say something back when the doors open. “Back already?” Clay says loudly. Nick shouts something along “Yeah dude it´s raining”, followed by what sounds like him going to the bathroom right away. Silent noises of running water are turned down by the sounds of a movie Clay chose. It´s about superheroes.  
-  
George finds himself putting down his phone and actively watching the movie until someone suddenly jumps on the couch. Nick chose to sit in the space between George and Clay. He´s wearing baggy pajamas, other than Georges. Clay still had a hoodie on. The movie just started, but the longer it went on, the dizzier George seemed to get. His head feels heavy and his eyes slowly close on their own. He tries to stay awake, but the blankets and the couch pillows feel so soft. Clay emits a quiet wheeze. “Nick, look at George” he whispers. Nick holds back a laugh. He carefully pulls on Georges arm, who slowly slips down. Once laying on his side, George doesn´t bother opening his eyes again. He´s sound asleep soon. Another hour into the movie Clay notices Nick slowly snuggling himself into the pillows. He had already made George share the big blanket before. Nick falls asleep next to George and leaves Clay watching the rest of the movie on his own. Neither Nick nor George moves much.  
-  
The movies over. Clay needs to go to bed. He wants to stand up but hesitates. Nick had barely moved. George buried his face between a pillow and Nicks shoulder. Clay thinks for a bit, but eventually shuts of the tv, leaving the house in complete silence and darkness. Clay curls up beside Nick and pulls the blanket over himself as well. The calming, even breathing of his friends quickly guide him to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing takes me a bit longer lately, hope you like the story tho. Ty for reading!


	5. Distant voices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They learn to live together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to make this clear. I use the names Clay/Nick/George for this story instead of Dream/Sapnap/George because I feel like it fits better for an AU that´s supposed to play in real life. I don´t mean to write about their real selves, but rather about them as characters. Just a disclaimer.

Nick wakes up with fur in his face. He gently pushes the purring cat of him and tries to sit up. Still half asleep he struggles to get out of their kind of cozy sandwich position. He manages to brush Georges arm off without waking him up. Nick pushes himself of the couch, not touching Clay and quietly sneaking out the kitchen.  
-  
Clays eyes flutter open. First thing he sees is Georges hand almost pinching his eyes as he tumbles around the empty space between them. Clay sits up, abruptly. Georges eyes open ever so slightly, locking eyes with Clay. He can read the confusion in his face until he recognizes Clays face. George turns around and proceeds to sleep, Patches jumps on the couch again. Clay doesn´t know what time it is, but he sees the sun is at least about to rise. He watches George, his vision blurs. The warmth of the pillow and the couch below reach out to him, the blanket over his shoulders push him down. Clay wants to stand up, but his eyes close on him.  
-  
“He´s still sleeping? George whispers, entering the kitchen. Nick holds a mug with hot chocolate in his direction, George takes it. The sweet, warm smell surrounds George. The first sip is hot and there´s a faint taste of cinnamon. Nick nods “It´s 11 am”. George swallows a big sip, it´s almost hot enough to burn his throat. He oppresses a cough. “Slowly, George” Nick mocks. “Clay arrived yesterday, let him rest” George tells him with a slightly rusty voice. Nick shakes his head in disagreement. “He told me to wake him until 12.” he clarifies as he turns toward the counter. George takes it upon himself and goes to Clay, who still lays in the same position as George woke up. “Clay” he says softly, putting his hand on Clays shoulder. Patches beside his warm body stands up and stretches yawning. “Clay” he repeats, louder this time and shaking his shoulders. The blonde rubs his eyes. “Time?” he mumbles. “11” George answers. Clay stretches his arms, his bodes crack and he begins to feel less stiff. Clay looks at George, who was already wearing fresh clothes. A short-sleeves shirt, again, in blue. Georges blue. Nick also wears a short, simple shirt. It´s a hot day, despite the slight rain from the evening. “How long have you guys been up already?” Clay asks still sleepy. “Few hours, coffee?” Nick replies. Clay just nods.  
-  
Nick and Clay already paddle trough the waves as they sit on the mattress. They´re having fun trying to push each other of the mattress, into the still rather cold water. It´s not midday, so the water hadn´t gotten warmed up fully yet. They both hadn´t had the time to joke around like this for quite a while. George still sits under the shade of their parasol. He´s brushing of his clothes, already wearing his swimming clothes underneath. He reminds himself, there´s no need to be embarrassed, he´s not that slim. He’s at least average.  
-  
Clay paddles further out. “Yo dude, it´s even older out here” Nick laughs. “I don´t care, I´m not the one falling in” Clay grins. They both end up falling in the water and return to warm up soon after finding their balance again.  
-  
They all lie on their bath towels, enjoying the warm air on their skin. Nick plays music on his phone, in a reasonable volume. Clays new song, roadtrip, begins playing. Clay sings along, harmonizing with himself and so does Nick. George closes his eyes for a bit. He hears the evenly waves, seagulls in the distance. There are more people on the other beaches today, the tender wind drags more noise with it than usual. Talking, music, screaming and laughing, all at once. He opens his eyes again. Looking to the right, onto the water in the distance, he spots a good amount of people swimming and plying around. “Wouldn´t it be nice? Like, actually” Clay mumbles. “What?” Nick asks confused. “A road trip, together” Clay daydreams. “Maybe” Nick replies. Both Clay and George know him well enough to hear how intrigued he actually is by the idea of adventuring around.  
-  
Nick is the furthest out already. He dives his head under water, making his hair completely wet. George is close behind Clay, but falls behind with every step. Clay notices and splashes some water in Georges direction. George immediately picks up on this playful fight and runs after Clay, who picks up speed right away after a quick wheeze. A sudden, piercing pain causes George to gasp sharply. Clay turns around abruptly. A burning sensation begins to spread on his thighs, causing it to crump painfully. “George…?” Clay asks, but his eyes track something in the water close to George. Jellyfish. Clay reacts quickly, scanning the water around them in a quick 360, then pulling George towards him. “Don´t worry, those aren´t venomous, it just hurts” Clay tries to calm the older one who just replies with a “very much” trough clenched teeth. At first, Clay just supports George walking on his own, but he eventually picks him up once they reach shallow water.  
-  
George sighs in relief as Nick pours cold water from the cooling box on his skin. “You scared me, George” Nick complains. George looks up at his friend with an annoyed face “Well, guess how surprised I was.” George groans. His leg still hurts from the cramp. His hands and legs are full of sand, he tries patting it off, but his skin is still to wet and sticky. Nick attempts to awkwardly patting on Georges thigh, which doesn´t do anything. George smiles thankfully and instead stretches his leg a bit. He immediately flinches as another sudden burn arises. Clay scoffs before pressing down Georges muscle and moving his fingers slightly, which sends another sharp wave through him. Afterwards though his leg seems to relax again. George sighs thankfully. “You know how to treat jellyfish burns” Nick comments amazed. “You don´t even know how much my sister and I ran into those as kids” he remembers.  
-  
Later, George limbs into shallow water to wash some of the sand off. He´s careful not to touch his burns. It´ll just hurt unnecessary. He´ll just put one some salve later. It´s lunch time, Nick´s already getting their sandwiches out the cooling box. George returns to their place, but at first, he shakes all the sand out his towel. He sits down and finally there is almost no sand scratching his skin. They´re eating the food quickly. They don´t leave their small place under the parasols, the sun shines too strong on midday. That reminds George, he needs to get some sun block on again. He rummages around his bag. George puts on his sunscreen, relatively thick on his shoulders, because he knows he gets sunburns easily there. Clay seems to have dozed off, but Nick helps him to cover his back. “You might actually get a tan soon, George” Nick thinks. George likes the idea.  
-  
They head back home early, after only one swim. It´s quite calming and cool back at the house. George put on some salve on his thigh and covered it with some band aid. He wears some short, baggy pants, everything else just scratches. He comes downstairs and enters the kitchen. Nick sits on the big table between kitchen and living room again. He´s talking to Karl and Quackity, he has no headphones on. George makes his way around the table, on the other side of where Nick sits. He knows he has no facecam on, but he wants to be as quiet as possible in case Nick is streaming. On the couch he finds Clay, brushing Patches fur with a small brush. His dog lays aside them, sleeping after a big bowl of food. Clay leans towards George once he sat down, whispering “Karl´s live, I think. You shouldn´t talk if you still don´t want anyone knowing you live here now.” George nods and he sits down on his usual place on the couch, the corner.  
-  
Nick does some roleplay bits on the SMP, George listens only partially, he´s watching ticktocks, with no sound, of course. His phone vibrates in his hand, almost scaring him. Clay had sent him a photo. An insider. He has to smile as Clay lets out an out of breath wheeze. Nicks head turns to them with a “seriously?”-face, but returns to his laptop without saying anything. Clay and George continue to send stuff back and forth, Clays silent giggles might be picked up by Nicks mic, George holds back and sometimes scoffs into a pillow. The more Clay sends, the louder he laughs, to a point Nick has to smile as well “What the hell dude? Stop” he warns his friends. They can hear Karl saying goodbye to his chat and soon Quackitys voice “You´re all offline right?”. Karl makes approving sounds. “Dude I swear Dream” he complains and Clay laughs. “Yeah, I heard him from time to time” Big Q confirms. Clay stands up and goes to Nick, sitting down on the chair next to his. “I thought you guys might wanna come to visit?” Nick offers excitedly. “Really? Time for the tree of us?” Quackity says loudly, Karl giggles “Does Dream want that?”. Nick looks at Clay, who looks like he honestly thinks about it. “Well, I wouldn´t mind…” he says slowly. “You know we´ll keep quiet about your face or anything” Karl assures him. “I don´t worry about that, I know you both aren´t like that” Clay replies. Nick cheers, but George gives them the side eye. He knows he shouldn´t feel jealous but he can´t help but feel a bit annoyed about the fact that Clay wouldn´t trust him for such a long time. Now Alex and Karl will come visit and they´ll see Clay and he doesn´t even refuse to. Clay turns his head to him “Are you mad?” he asks in a teasing tone. Nick looks at him as well, George turns his head away “No”. “Who was that?” Karl asks. “What that a voice?”. “Nah dude, when do you guys want to come here” Nick distracts.  
-  
No matter how much he turns, George can´t mange to fall asleep. He crawls out of bed. Quickly, he throws an oversized hoodie on and sneaks down the stairs. As silent as possible, he puts on his shoes. He hears quiet footsteps coming out the lower bathroom, in his direction. His head spins around. “George?” Nicks sleepy voice is barely audible. “Where are you going?” he asks. “I need to take a walk” George replies, standing up. “I´ll join” Nick yawns.  
-  
A stronger breeze blows in their face as they walk to their beach. The empty, dark streets and the heavy smell of upcoming rain have a calming impression on George. The sky above is dark, the stars glow faintly, the moons glow hasn´t reached half of its shape yet. It´s dark, but not too dark. George could still see the ground in front of him. Nick walks slower once they walk in the sand. George likes his company, but walking along sore alone feels nice.  
-  
He reaches the stones to their small beach long before Nick. Once he takes a look down, he feels like he never left the house, but instead he had already fallen into a dream. The waves below him glow as they glide along the beach. It´s the most beautiful blue he has ever seen. Numerous, small bright blue lights fade in and out, leaving deep blue trails behind. George jumps down, the water around him glows up as he moves. He´s speechless, the amazement stuns him for a few seconds. He knows what the lights are. Glowing phytoplankton. He has only ever seen them in pictures, but now that he´s actually surrounded by what looks like small stars, he´s breathless. Nick steps on the stones above. George looks at him with an open mouth as wide eyes, Nick smiles. He knew that kind of plankton could get washed up at the beach, but he never thought he´d actually see it. He knew George would love it, blue is about the only color he´d see as bright as it is. George holds his hand up, as to offer Nick help to come down to him. Nick lets him. They stay at the beach for a while, in quiet admiration.


	6. The sound of rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George notices he finally feels at home.

It´s one of those days. He´s been in his room, working on his pc since he woke up. Clay chose today as a day to work. He chose to, therefore he tries not to be annoyed about his tasks. Still, the only things he´s looking forward to are short trips to the fridge for energy drinks or regular bathroom breaks, but especially the small stream he had planned for the evening. Once he´s outside his room, he tries not to listen to George and Nicks excited chattering. It was raining today, they want to drive to an aquarium-place. Nick wants to show George what it could be like diving in the deep parts of the sea. George once expressed his concerns about diving, so Nick figures he could take some of his fear by showing him the beautiful aspects. Clay doesn´t want to hear anything that could persuade him from his plans. If he manages to actually get the whole day of work done, he´ll have a much calmer rest of the week.  
-  
George and Nick walk by an especially big tank. George stops at the middle to watch some big manta rays slowly gliding through the water. Nick watches the trough moving water distorted light flicker on the floor of the darkened room. Georges pale skin almost reflects those lights, shadows dance across his face. They slowly make their way around. Small gray sharks with white tips on their fins: whitetip reef sharks. Small orange fish with white and orange stripes: clown fish. Many other colorful fish or many other camouflaged fish.  
-  
They come across the biggest tank in the aquarium. The room is dark, the lights in the water dimly lit. The glass of the tank stretches from one entrance to the other, in a semi-circle. The other two walls are empty. Behind the glass sits a small shipwreck, peacefully. Algae and seaweed grow around it, slowly overgrowing the wooden planks. Barnacles slowly spread along the ships bow. The colorful corals make the dead scenery still lifelike. Tiger sharks ominously roam above. Small octopi bury themselves in sand. Big schools of very small fish cast quick moving shadows. “You can dive down to one of those, George. Most are even bigger” Nick suggests. “I mean they´re usually much deeper down so we´ll need some additions flashlights, but….” He continues, George barely reacts. “I understand if you still don´t want to, its much safer here” he reassures. George looks at him. “I´ll think about it” he promises. Nick can hear in his voice that he already debates with himself, whether he´s afraid or intrigued. Nick takes a look at his watch. “Come on, it´s lunchtime.” he tells George. “What? Already?” the british pulls his phone out. Nick gently takes Georges shoulders and pushes him forward. “I´m hungry, let´s grab some food.” Nick and George get to the small restaurant.  
-  
Clay crawls out his room. George and Nick are gone already, He didn´t hear them leave through his headphones, probably. He wanders to the first floor, takes a package instant noodles out the pantry. He puts the dry noodles in a bowl and checks his phone while he waits for the water to boil. Nick had sent him a photo of a pale puffer fish with the caption “you”. Clay smiles, but doesn´t answer since the water heater beeps. He pours the steaming water in the bowl. It takes a while to shake the seasoning and the powder out the small plastic packs. He gives it a quick twirl and just takes the bowl and a fork in his room. Clay likes when the noodles taste spicy, he usually lets the liquid soak in for long. Too long, sometimes. They get cold quickly.  
-  
Different jellyfish float in small tanks in this room. There are also some sea urchins and crabs, but George is more interested in finding the kind of jellyfish he got to experience the day before. He didn´t really got to see them, Clay had seen them and pulled him away. Honestly, he couldn´t have cared less in that moment, but now he was interested. He found them, but they look boring. Almost transparent, just a bit cloudy white. If he looks closely, he can se many, many small and thin strings. Those are barely visible. Probably what scratched his skin. They got to see the remaining rooms with all the small tanks pretty quickly. On their way back they stop at a fast-food restaurant to get some slushies. Blueberry for George, and he tastes Nicks cherry flavor.  
-  
Clay waited until Twitch on his second display confirmed to him that he was life. He still waited a bit until notifications are send out. The number of viewers rise from one moment to the other, he unmutes his mic. A short hello, a last quick check of his speedrun setup and he´s creating a new world. No luck the first few seeds, but Clay was in a good mood. He is talking to the viewers about lots of things. What meanings are behind his song, what’s going on the SMP, Manhunt or how living is. Clay must be careful not to start talking about George moving in, he reminds himself just in time. He peeks at the clock. 8pm. Maybe another two hours. Nick and George might join later on, if they want to, that is.  
-  
It´s dark out early. Nick watches something on tv, George doesn´t really feel like it. He feels rather thirsty, so he at least got a reason to walk off. He drinks almost two glass full of water. And while he´s on it he searches through the fridge for a snack. He can´t help but notice how empty one of the shelves is. Only one energy drink left. “Is Clay not coming out his room?” George asks in Nicks direction. He hadn´t seen Clay today. “Uh…I don´t know. He might go to sleep right away” the younger one claims. George thinks. Another energy might not be optimal, and he probably had at enough coffee as well. Then, George remembers something.  
-  
Over the sounds of breaking wood and footsteps in his new Minecraft world, Clay hears what sounds like his door opening. He figures muting himself won´t be necessary. Without turning around, he just mumbles “I´m live, Nick. You know I´m- “He falls silent as he notices the faint, warm smell of chocolate slowly coming closer. Surprised, he does turn around. George puts down a mug of hot chocolate milk on his desk. He smiles, but quickly leaves. “Thank you” Clay says quietly. He knows his mic probably picked it up, and he knows his smile is audible. George closes the door behind him as silently as possible. Clay takes a sip. He´s thankful for this small gesture. The chocolate really seems to warm him. The looks at chat. They´re filled with comments like “Sapmom”, “Wholesome” or whatever random emoji spamming means. Clay puts the mug down, he´s glad chat doesn´t spam about the stupid ships instead, again. Well, of course the assume it´s Nick who came into the room. If they knew it was George, both wouldn´t hear the rest of it for days. That´s what they get for pandering. He sighs and restarts his run.  
-  
Nick and George end up watching some random YouTube videos on the tv. At some point, Nick lets out a long sigh to get George to look at him. “Well, George, how do you like it now?” Nick asks casually. George looks at him confused. Nick moves a bit, searching a more comfortable position. “I was a bit scared to ask, but…” he takes a deep breath. “What do you think about this place? Are you already sure you want to stay?” Nick seems slightly embarrassed but holds eye contact with George. The question comes suddenly, and George is perplexed for a second. His mind fills with all impressions he got over the last few days. He begins to smile unintentionally; he feels warm and content. Only one word rummages around his head. “Home” George says. “I feel at home”. Nick grins bright once George said that. His eyes look at him with pure relief. “George, I think we´ll shape this place into the coziest home we´ll ever have” Nick imagines wholeheartedly. George feels peace settling down. He really begins to feel about the place like a sanctuary, like it finally grows on him. For the first days it just felt like he was visiting Nicks home to stay overnight. George smiles at Nick with all his exciting emotions flashing in his eyes. Nick can´t help but smile along with George. His heart pounds in his chest. He now finally knows both Clay and George will stay close to him. He knows just how much they´re worth to each other. He hopes they will learn how to live so close together and how to handle things they would have usually treated by shutting of their laptops. It´s not like they really ever fight. It´s just that Nick feels like something has to happen at some point. It feels too heavy to be nothing. And it feels close. He quickly brushes it off.  
-  
Clay doesn´t end up going to sleep right away after the stream. He´s wide awake after taking a cold shower. Nick quickly picks up on fooling around, annoying George until he too, jokes around with them. Clay scrubs his hair to get cold drops of water all over the place, scaring Patches away, who scares Georges dog away. “Oh, by the way. I got prototypes for new merch today.” Clay mentions. He begins to walk off as he continues speaking, as if expecting his friends to follow, which they do. “I want your opinions”.  
-  
He enters his room. George looks around, he didn´t got to see the room in great detail or lit up when he was in earlier. Half the walls are painted pale green or plain white. He´s got chocolate brown furniture and many decorations, many pictures or art on the walls. The mask of his appearance on Mr. Beasts video hangs over his bed. The floorboards have similar wooden panels to Georges room, just that Clay has some very soft carpets. Spread on his bed are a few shirts, hoodies and something George instantly grabs, laughing. Dream blob plushies. 2 sizes. George hugs the biggest one, his hands easily reach around it, but its still about as big as his whole upper body. “Do you want to sell it that big?” Nick asks. “Originally, yes. It´s more of a pillow, I guess. But I think I´ll just stick to the plushies.” Clay comments. Nick puts on an exaggerated judging look. “Let´s rate this merch.” George puts the pillow down. “They´re softer than my other merch” Clay tells them with a proud undertone.  
-  
He eventually decides on what designs he wants, considering his friends opinions. Clay begins to fold the clothes when Nick snatches one of the hoodies. He holds against his body. “I think this one is my size” he says, looking at Clay, making a face he understands right away. “Keep it.” Clay agrees. “I didn´t plan on keeping too many of them anyway.” “Well, in that case” Nick grabs a black shirt with white-black striped long sleeves, and the Dream smiley in the middle of course. “What sizes are those?” George holds up some hoodies. “which ones are oversized?”. “As oversized as that black one?” Clay laughs. “Not as much” George replies. His expression changes from calm to annoyed for just a moment. “Posting those screenshots wasn´t necessary.” Clay avoids looking at him. “You got lots of cute fanart” he counters sightly nervous, handing George a white and a dark green hoodie. George laughs, assuring Clay he wasn´t really mad.  
-  
Nick takes the clothes he chose and brings them down in the basement to wash right away. He took Georges clothes and the one shirt Clay decided on keeping with him as well. He doesn´t really get why none of the others take 5 minutes of their time to put their clothes in the washing machine, but frankly, complaining wouldn’t do anything anyways.  
-  
Clay closes the cardboard box filled with the remaining clothing. The small plush lies on his bed, he just leaves it there. Maybe he´ll put it on his desk, next to the laptop, next to his streaming equipment. Would make a sweet decoration, even though it´ll catch dust quickly. Clay turns around to pick up the blob pillow, but he almost flinches when he almost runs into George. He´s holding the pillow again. “I´ll take this, if you have nothing against it?” he asks. “Take it I guess” Clay replies, taking a step backwards, then sitting down on his bed. He almost fell, that would´ve been embarrassing. “I don´t have enough room for another blob” Clay continues. The pillow surely would end up in his wardrobe somewhere. He´s glad the only finished pillow won´t end up like that. George nods and leaves as quiet as he entered. Clay wonders if he wanted to scare him. Whatever. Patches jumps on his desk and begins sniffing on the plush, hitting it with her paws and eventually pulling out a thick string with her claw. Clay sighs. He tilts one of his windows open. Cold air streams inside and with it the smell of rain, wet pavement and muddy pine needles.  
-  
George throws the pillow on his bed. The day had passed quickly but smoothly. Pleasant, in a way. George was ready to fall asleep, but the pressure of working on a new video kept him on his laptop. He lets his mind wander a bit while working. He wasn´t in the mood to hear music, really. The house was quiet. If there still are some noises, his closed door blocks them off. He catches himself looking around his room instead of working. He wants to put things on his white walls as well. Most of his furniture is pale, only his decorations offer a variety of colors. Compared to Clays room it´s boring. That’s when he notices, he never took a good lock inside Nicks room either. Only thing he was shown are orange walls, a big bed and a small amount of plants. Cacti, to be exact. George shakes his head to clear his mind. The faster he´s done, the sooner he can go to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading! My chapters will usually be added in irregular intervals, thought I´ll let you know :)


	7. The smell of apples

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two days Karl and Quackity visit.

For almost 2 hours George has been on his daily morning walk with his dog already. Today was still a bit windy and cold enough to wear one of his new hoodies from Clay, the white one. The last four days were kind of rainy, today the clouds slowly began to disappear. It´s only his 10th day in the new home but it already feels familiar enough to have been weeks. Today is also the date Alex and Karl had set for their visit. He´s excited, especially because him and Alex were getting along lately. George can´t remember Nick saying anything about a specific time, but he assumes they´ll be arriving around midday. It´s still long until that, but George is already on the last 15 minutes of his walk, he can already see the house. His dog pulls on the leach, he recognizes the house as well.  
-  
Nick drinks the last sip of his coffee. While he puts the mug in the dishwasher, Clay enters the kitchen. Nick can see how bland his face is looking at him. “Excited?” Nick jokes. The blonde begins stepping around slightly. “Come on, Clay. You agreed on this. It´s gonna be fun.” Nick reminds him. Clay holds back a sigh. “I think I rather work” he dismisses. “I will say hello at some point, I promise, but I´ll surely find something to pass time alone.” Nick looks at him weird, asking “Why alone?” Clay looks at him with questioning eyes. “Do you mean you´re excluding George?” he tries to clarify, and Nicks eyes widen. “Nononono! I just thought he might not want them to know he´s here or something…” he defends himself, spitting out his words quickly. In that moment the front door opens and Georges dog excitedly comes running to them, wagging it´s tail, acting like he hadn´t seen both of them in days. Gorge himself follows a little later. “I guess we´ll eat once Alex and Karl are here?” George asks, while making his way to the sink, going past his friends. “Yeah” Nick answers evasive.  
-  
George cleans up his room a bit. His open window sets a cold breeze through the whole room. He makes his bed, he forgot to do so in the morning. He puts the blob Pillow on the ground, between his bed and a wardrobe. Unintentionally he takes a deep breath. The room smells like nothing. He knows all the merch in Clays room were freshly unpacked from the cardboard boxes he had gotten delivered that same day. But George could swear for the first two days he had the pillow beside his bed, the faint smell of chocolate would ever so slightly reach him when he closed his eyes.  
-  
A loud knock on the door almost causes George to shriek. He´s on his way up the stairs. He waits a few seconds, but he only hears the soft music of the kitchen radio. Neither Clays nor Nicks door open, so he hurries to the door himself. As the door swings open, he´s greeted by two surprised faces. “George!” Alex shouts and instantly pulls George into a hug. Now Nicks door opens and he comes running to the door to greet them both with a big hug. George stays more on the side but decides on going into the kitchen instead. The table is already set, the food will be ready in 10 minutes or less. George can hear laughing and loud speaking from the hall, he tries not to listen to what they´re saying too closely.  
-  
Rice with small fried chicken parts, cooked and sliced carrots, some broccoli. Mixed in a heated pan and poured over with eggs. Scramble around a bit to cook the egg, then a bit of seasoning. George splits up the food in all five plates. Everyone had already sat down. “Where´s Dream?” Karl asks as George puts down his plate again. Alex, already mouth full, nods in agreement, with a similar expression on his face. Nick stands up “I´ll go get him real quick” he decides while already going out the door.  
-  
Clay eats fast. He barely makes eye contact with anyone. He feels watched, this time from Karl and Alex, not George. All the other people sitting around the desk talk loudly and cheerful. Right after they had finished their food, Nick takes the two visitors into his room. George is left behind cleaning the desk. Clay stays to help him putting everything in the dishwasher, but escapes into his room quickly afterwards.  
-  
Clay throws himself on his bed. He puts his headphones in, starts the playlist on his phone and closes his eyes as he puts the phone down on his chest. But as he takes a deep breath, the phone slips down his body and lands on the mattress. He doesn´t care. He doesn´t even react when he hears the three people coming out of Nicks room and presumably making their way to the living room.  
-  
They play a few rounds Super Smash Bros. George sits on the couch with them and watches. Nick is yelling often. Karl is skilled, he often giggles during the rounds. Alex seems concentrated. The three of them are having a blast. Something between them seems to create a strange feeling, the longer George stays, the more out of place he feels. He understands Clays decision to escape to his room. George stands up, mutters some kind of excuse and leaves the living room, up the stairs.  
-  
Karl and Alex planned on staying overnight and leave by tomorrow afternoon. George sits in his room on his bed, his dog sleeps beside him. He can´t help but feel a little left out. Even though he understands that the trio had met for the first time in person, they´re still Georges friends as well. They need their time together, he understands that. George tries to convince himself he´s overreacting and they will get to do something together tomorrow, when there´s a hesitant knock at his door. It opens with a creak. Slowly, a head peaks inside. George only has to see the blonde strains of hair to know who it is. “Hey, Clay. Come in” he invites him. The door opens quicker. “I wanted to ask you if you want to record a video for the “shorts” channel, actually.” Clay replies shyly, George sees he´s already got his laptop with him. George stands up, makes some room beside his own laptop and puts the second chair of his room there for Clay to sit on. The blonde had closed the door quietly. As he puts down his laptop, which has Minecraft booted up upon opening, he spots Georges dog out of his peripheral vision. It begins wagging its tail as it notices his looking. The dog stretches itself and turns to lay on his bed. Clay can´t resist giving it belly scratches while George boots up his computer.  
-  
Clays idea for the channel is a short sketch. His Minecraft-skin would run around a map, x-ray on. George would wear different skins and stand around places, walking or standing, crouching or interacting with blocks. George suggests they use places around the Dream SMP to make a small video, to kind of make up for the lack of content on Clays channel of his own SMP. They reconstruct a few rooms, like the panic room or the final control room and Wilbur’s control room. For the last pieces of footage, they rebuild scenes of their old x-ray videos. They´re messing around a lot, all their laughing and joking takes up a god 50% of their recording. Clay noticed George being a bit more silent than usual, but he brushes it off to his friend simply being tired.  
-  
“By the way, Dream- “George corrects himself with a quick cough. Clay laughs, George just grunts. “I´m sorry, I was still stuck in thinking I have to call you Dream for the recording” George whines. Clay smiles at him reassuring. “You can call me how you want” he insures, George just answers with a simple “I´ll stick with Clay.”, then quickly continuing. “I wanted to tell you about the glowing plankton on the beach. Did you knew about them?” he asks. Clay nods “Nick told me about them. You guys saw them, right? I mean, I didn´t know they would be at our beach either” he explains, George reaches for his phone. He tips around on it shortly, before presenting its display to Clay. “Look, I took some photos before we went back home. The quality isn´t the best.” The photos are dark, blurry, but still decipherable. Clay nods approving and George swipes through his camera roll, one picture to much even. It’s a picture of his dog looking at Patches in the blurry background. George closes his phone. “Hey, do you want some tea?” Clay offers.  
-  
Followed by Georges dog, they leave the room. They go past the empty room in front of Georges door, except that room wasn´t empty anymore, but rather the new guestroom. Nicks and Karls voices are heard. “Drinking tea isn´t very good late at night” George points out once they go down the stairs. “It´s not that late” Clay dismisses.  
-  
In the kitchen, George boils some water in the heater, Clay puts two mugs down beside him. He opens a shelf. “What kind of tea do you want?” he asks while reaching for a small wooden box. George thinks for a moment. “What do we have” he asks back. “Let´s see…” Clay opens the box and holds it up to him. The box is filled with teabags. Many different smells reach George all at once. Berries, fruits, herbs, even black tea. “Uh…I´ll take one of the fruits” he decides slightly overwhelmed. Clay smiles and fetches two bags out of the mix. He places them inside their mugs. George pours the smoking water on top while Clay closes the shelf again.  
-  
One sugar cube for George, none for Clay. The tea is still steaming hot, even after the roughly 10 minutes of soaking. George sits on the kitchen island, feet dangling. Clay simply leans against it next to him. The blonde slurps on his herbal tea if it´s a reasonable temperature. George holds up his bug with both hands, even the mug itself is hot. He carefully smells on the soft steams. Apple. He hadn´t had apple tea in quite some time. He takes a very careful sip and, surprisingly, doesn´t burn his tongue. His mood lightens immediately. He almost forgot how much he used to love apple flavored teas. Clay notices the expression in Georges eyes change. He rolls his eyes amused and takes another sip.  
\--  
George woke up relatively late. Once his eyes adjust to the brightness of his room, he´s awake straight away. He forgot to close the blinds when he went to sleep. George quickly changes into his clothes for the day. He didn´t want Alex or Karl seeing him in his baggy pajamas. He opens the door and steps outside, still rubbing through his hair. Without waring he runs straight into someone. It was Nick. He lets go of Georges shoulder, which he grabbed in surprise. “Moring” George mumbles. Nick was wearing a soft hoodie, almost oversized. Was it still windy outside? “I came to see if you´re not dead, dude” Nick jokes. “It´s still early” George yawns.  
-  
The kitchen is full. Clay is drinking coffee. Karl is eating a bagel. Alex is chilling next to him. Patches makes her way around everyone’s feet and Georges dog is getting some water. All of them are wearing rather thick clothing. Nick even wears a white bandana, like most fanarts depict. Alex was wearing his merch and as he spots him, he grins. “George how´d you like my cosplay?” he asks with a teasing expression on his face. He even puts on some goggles that look kind of like those on his Minecraft-skin. George scoffs and Karl giggles.  
-  
The daily morning walk that day was everything but calm. Everyone joined him. Everyone besides Patches, of course, she rather strolls around the fields and forests. She´s allowed to go outside because she usually stays far away from streets. She´s afraid of cars and he hates the sound. She always brings home dead mice or birds though. Clay gets rid of them as soon as he knows Patches won´t eat them. George is still worried his dog will find one of Patches killed pray one day and play with it. Nick and Alex stir up sand. They kick water drops in the air, trying to hit each other, but rather hitting everyone else. No one was mad, there is an especially good mood since the morning. Everyone is relaxed and even Clay didn´t mind staring one bit. George has a feeling, today will stay like that. It would be nice.  
-  
Lunchtime. Pizza. It reminds Nick of the first time he had shown George the beach. Today, the weather didn´t heat up enough to go or a swim with the two guests, but once it would be unbearably ho again, he´ll invite them again. Nick writes down everyone’s order, George wants the same he does. Last time Nick let George taste a slice, George wasn´t really sure, but he seemed to love it now. Nick considers this a success. Them eating up takes long. One would assume they wouldn´t have anything to talk about anymore, but that is far from true. They talk, they laugh, they joke, and they eat. It really was a cozy day today.  
-  
Karl packs his stuff once he finished his pizza, Alex follows a bit later. They put their suitcases next to the main entrance. The last two hours before they leave are spend having fun. They sing karaoke, intentionally exaggerated, they make a few photos again, this time George volunteers to actually make good photos. They posted on their socials yesterday, but those were just some strangely angles selfies. High quality photos are important as a memory. Sure, funny picture are good for a laugh afterwards, but a few good pictures wouldn´t be so bad.  
-  
Saying goodbye takes a bit long. Nick drives them to the airport, so they won´t need to call a taxi. George waves until the car takes a turn and out of sight. “What a time” Clay sighs as he goes inside. George just now notices how cold the wind is. He quickly follows Clay inside. He´s surprised to see Clay coming out his room with a backpack. “Are you going somewhere?” he asks. Clay answers in an apologetic tone “I thought you knew. Family stuff, again.” George looks at him confused. “I´ll be driving to my sister in about 30 minutes. I´ll be back by lunch tomorrow.” Clay explains briefly. “Is she okay?” George asks worried. “Yeah, she´s fine. She just asked me to help her with something, it´s a new house. It´s actually not far from here, but I’ll stay overnight there. I don´t want to drive at night.” Clay clarifies.  
-  
George enters his room. It´s so cold. He didn´t close his window after he opened it a few hours ago. He curses silently, closes his window, turns on the radiator and leaves the door open. Maybe it´ll warm up quickly.  
-  
Clay shouts “Goodbye!” from downstairs and closes the door quicker than George could´ve shouted back. He leaves his room and notices how warm the rest of the house is. Or rather, how less his room was warming up. He looks inside the guest room, the door was left open. It´s cleaned up already. He closes the door. As he heads downstairs, the humming sound of a car engine slowly disappears in the distance. George decides to play a little bit Animal Crossing on the Switch. He hasn´t played in quite some time, and he isn´t really far into the game either. But he likes gathering some furniture for the small outdoor-coffee he started to build, talking to his favorite villager and repeatedly hitting the other with his net. He adores the penguin villagers, he was planning on searching for Wade, a white-black penguin with a yellow stripe on his beak. There sure are ugly villagers, not to say any names, but George had some on his island, he would love to move away.  
-  
Nick arrives back almost two hours after Clay had left. He wanted to wait for the plane with his friends. “Clay is already gone” George tells him as Nick sits down on the couch. Nick replies “I know”. He grabs the tv remote. “You want to watch Avengers now?” Nick asks right as George turns off the Switch. “Hm, why not” he agrees. Outside, the sun begins to set. The sky turns into a dark gray-ish orange. Nick stares at it for a second, George doesn´t even notice. He´d barely see its colors anyways.  
-  
George has to use the toilet midway through. Nick presses play again once he hears Georges footsteps coming closer. George sits down a bit closer to Nick this time, not in the corner. Nick is explaining some stuff that happens in the movie from time to time, but George barely listens, he just nods his head. He can almost feel the warmth of Nicks body reaching out to him. George looks on the floor, he slowly gets the impression of feeling ashamed about something. The movie ends, the screen fades to black. Nick glances to him. “You good?”. George looks up. “Just a bit tired, today was nice, hanging out together with everyone. More exhausting than yesterday” he mentions. Nick reads the unintended tone in his voice. “Are you mad we excluded you yesterday?” he asks calmly. “No, I´m not!” he defends himself. “Were you jealous?” Nick leans towards George, grinning mockingly. “Not really” George brushes it off. “Dude you don´t have to be embarrassed, it´s fine” Nick continues. “Shut up”.  
-  
George switches channels, but finds nothing of interest, so he turns the volume down a bit for background noise. He attempts to grab his phone. He looks up at Nick, their eyes meet. George looks away quickly. “It feels a bit domestic, doesn´t it?” Nick says softly. Georges heart beats loud against his chest. He looks at Nick again. Now Nick avoids his eyes. A few silent moments pass, in those few moments George can feel the air grow cold. Nicks head finally turns to him again. Nick swallows, his throat is painfully dry. Was that what he was afraid of happening? It´s silent again. Nick watches as a pale pink slowly fades in on Georges cheeks. Nick pulls his legs onto the couch and under himself, he turns to sit facing George, who copies his movements. A look at Georges pleading eyes is all it takes for Nick to reach for his arms. George leans forward and lets himself get pulled on Nicks lap. Georges feet wrap around behind Nick, his arms grab the back of his hoodie, brushing by the hood. Nick carefully holds onto Georges waist. Nick wants to say Georges name, but no words escape his mouth.  
(Tw: Kissing; skip to next paragraph)  
Nick feels Georges warm breath against his skin. They feel each other’s heartbeats once their bodies move even closer. Georges eyes close when the gap between their faces slowly decreases. Nicks eyes fixate on his approaching lips. On the last second George turns his head to the side reluctantly, making a tense face. Nick exhales sharply, sealing his lips on Georges neck instead. He presses another kiss further up. A sharp inhale from George lets him pause.  
Their eyes meet again, but this time, it sends shivers down their spines. Nicks eyes widen. Their tight grips around each other loosen and George slips down from Nicks lap and onto the couch. He puts his hands up to cover his face. His skin feels warm, his heart still pounds heavy. Nick bites his lip, regret starts rising up in his head. They both know it was wrong. They both think it is.  
-  
It has gotten dark out. Both Nick and George remained sitting on the couch for a bit longer. George had pushed himself in the corner though. Neither of them dares to look at the other or move, really. Nicks pulse had slowed again, but he feels lightheaded. George suddenly flinches. He stands up and takes a few steps, past Nick, past the tv, past the couch. He wants to leave. “George!” Nick calls out, way louder than intended. Georges head abruptly turns to face him. “George…please stay with me tonight” he asks, his voice almost dies midway through. He continues a weak stammer “My bed is big enough. We won´t do anything, I promise. I just…want to know how it is…falling asleep next to someone and waking up…” George interrupts him with a cold voice “Oh? So you want to know.” “George…we need to know what this…is” his words are soft, George looks away. “Please” he asks again. “Fine” Georges face finally starts loosening up. “But if you snore, I´m going” he warns. Nick turns off the tv.  
-  
Nicks bed is huge. His room is dark, the air warm. George brought his own pillow but uses Nicks blanket. It smells like him, of course. They lay on opposite sides of the bed, backs turned. George feels small, and tired. He imagined the night to be long, but he already couldn´t keep his eyes open. Nicks breath was uneven and restless, he would take a bit to fall asleep, for sure. But George drifts off into a deep sleep quickly. Nick turns around. He gently reaches for Georges face to brush aside strains of his hair. He still doesn´t fully understand what had happened and what it would mean once they wake up tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I started writing this story, I didn´t plan on writing anything love related, it´s usually out of my confort zone. But here we are. Hope you liked it anyway.


	8. The taste of coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George hopes everything goes back to normal, but is the "storm" Nick believed in really over?

Nick awakes slowly. He stretches himself as wide as he can and snuggles into the cold parts of his bedding. Suddenly, he jumps up, wide awake. His bed is empty, he´s alone. He pulls his sheets away. Not a trace of Georges pillow. Or rather, no indication of George himself. Nick listens into the quiet house. He hops out of bed. It´s cold, he wants to get back to the cozy, soft warmth of his bed, but he doesn´t. The door opens silently and Nicks steps outside. It´s warmer now. He goes along the corridor, into the hall. The further he gets, the louder a humming noise emitting from the kitchen gets. Nick listens closer. Familiar tune, occasionally it sounds unrecognizable.  
-  
Nick enters the kitchen, silent enough that George doesn´t hear him. The British makes himself a bag of tea, humming different songs simultaneously, tip-taping around silently to the rhythm. If he would just start talking, he´d probably scare George, so Nick slowly starts to hum along. It only works partly because George flinches anyways. Nick almost bursts out laughing. George looks at him for a few seconds before saying a quick “Morning, Nick” and turning back to make his tea. Nick wants to get George to talk to him, but he´s afraid he´ll block off. “You...talked in your sleep last night” Nick begins talking hesitantly. “What did I say?” George didn´t turn around, but Nick could hear his embarrassed smile. “I can´t remember” he admits. George lets his spoon fall into the sink and picks up his tea. The sweet smell of berries meets Nick. “I´m sorry I left before you were awake” George mumbles an apology. Nicks throat tightens, he fells like it´s getting hard to breath. “George…” he begins, but his loss for words instantly cut him off. George tries to read the emotions in Nicks tense body language. He takes a deep breath, then asks “Nick. Can we forget yesterday evening?” Nick nods wildly. He whishes for nothing more than the familiar feeling they had built up through the years of their online friendship. That feeling they had felt once putting on their headphones to talk, that feeling that had been present so strongly until yesterday. George begins to relax again. He drinks his tea. Their friendship was something dear to them. They wouldn´t let it change because of something they both interpreted wrong.  
-  
Nick had slept awful that night, so he does return to his bed after talking to George. He lolls in his soft sheets, eyes closed. He just can´t drift into sleeping again, but it still feels like a good rest. He´s not that tired, he just yearns for the comfort of sleep. Time flies by. Nicks dozing takes away his sense of time. Only when he hears Georges dog barking, the garage door opening and two different voices, he notices it´s about midday. Nick heaves himself out of bed.  
-  
Clays attention turns to the opening door in the corridor. Nicks hair is messy and he´s still wearing his sleeping clothes. “Good morning. Did I wake you up?” he asks blithely. Nicks voice is slightly raspy “Nah dude, I was awake, I just napped away”. “Shure” Clay passes him, giving him a pat on the shoulder and disappears in his own room. Nick decides to join George and help out with cooking. The atmosphere between them is relaxed and Nick is relieved. He can tell George had no problem at all, being next to him this close again. Georges body language is surprisingly easy to read. Just now, Nick notices George wearing a blouse-sweater combi, pale blue and white. Nick doesn´t want to go change. Pajama day it is.  
-  
Lunch. Clay eats quickly and he eats much. He´s been hungry since last night. Homemade burgers and potato slices seasoned with pepper powder and herbs. Clay almost chokes while chewing because he wanted to talk at the same time. Nick pats Clays back until he stops coughing. “Relax dude” George sounds unbothered. Clay swallows painfully. “Nick, you wanna like try surfing today? It´s perfect weather” Clay suggests. Nick gets excited “Hell yeah!”. Both now look at George, who shakes his head. “I´ll join you next time, I´d rather stream today” he replies. Nick shrugs.  
-  
Clay already sits on a white surfboard. He´s enthusiastic, he paddles around impatiently as he waits for Nick, who floats toward him. It´s gotten warm, but a little bit of wind roughs up the waves. They´re relatively small, but big enough for Nick to balance a bit while moving to shore. Once Nick can stand halfway upright, they give up and mess around instead. Nick almost throws up because he swallows so much water, when falling off his board and laughing at the same time. Clay wheezes all the air out his lounges again, he tries talking while gasping for air, Nick can´t understand a word. “Dude” Nick laughs. Clay calms himself. “We have to try this again soon, with George. We´ll drag him with us if we have to” Nick jokes. Clay lays back on his board. “Aren´t you tired?” he asks Nick. “Kinda” he confesses. Clay sits up with a “Let´s head back”.  
-  
George plays some Minecraft, but his viewers control the world around him with donations. Its his second attempt, the last world was destroyed by an ender dragon, spawned in the overworld trough 150$ donation. George hears the sound of a 25$ tip, meaning a few creepers will spawn any second behind him. He immediately sends his character forward, but the explosions boost his off a cliff. “NO!” he screams, his mic distorts over his high-pitched noise. He laughs nervously, the fall damage left him with only one heart and he hasn´t any food left. He runs around the overworld, through an empty field, no animals, no trees and the sun was setting. George puffs, he´s safe for now. He quickly glances on his second monitor, checking his face cam and the chat. He´s put up a greenscreen behind him, nobody had gotten the chance to see the room behind him yet. He´s still hesitant to tell his viewers that he´s with the rest of the dream team. Even though it was about time, George had decided on staying for as long as the other two did.  
-  
The game got difficult once he had entered the nether. He screams a lot, he laughs it off once in safety, only to scream again while navigating through many enemies, panicking. Clay and Nick come home to those sounds coming from Georges room. “He´s overreacting” Nick sighs, Clay giggles a “It´s funny.”  
-  
George ended the stream soon after. Now in the kitchen, he lets them tell him how surfing went. Nick is describing so many moments, he raves about it. George listens carefully, in secret he wishes he went them instead. They both could guess they won´t need to say much next time, George would definitely want to join them. Clay turns on the radio, adjusting the volume. As he turns around, looking at the happy faces of his friends talking, and noticing that smell, the smell of their home, he can´t quite distinguish, a warm, homely feeling seeps into his heart. Clay catches Georges eyes quickly looking away. Did he notice Clays was absent?  
-  
Nick goes to bed early. The sun hasn´t even set yet, but his eyes feel heavy, his body was tired. George went into his room to work on his video again. Clay cuddles his cat. She´s usually a bit grumpy when he´s away for too long. This time, she seemed to forgive him right away. She´s purring loudly, bumping her head against his hands. He listens to music silently, he already assumed Nick wanted to sleep. There are no plans for the next day, so Clay lets himself imagine fun things to do. He catches himself wanting to plan trips, do something fun, all three of them, bonding time.  
-  
Clay himself goes to the bathroom relatively early as well. The air in the bathroom is warm and steamy. Nick hadn´t left the door open again. They do have a window in there, but it´s broken, so they leave the door open for a bit fresh air for now. Nevertheless, Clay shuts the door once inside. It´s not that bad. He lets the bathtub fill in with hot water and adds a bit too much of soap. Soft scratching on the outside show him that Patches is clingy again. He lets her in and closes the door again. She rolls around on the warm carpets of the bathroom. While Clay soaks in the hot water, he watches her, she tries to find a comfortable position to sleep. She steps around with her claws out, Clay´s afraid she might make a hole in the carpet soon, but he´s not disturbing her. Her big eyes slowly blink at him as she finally lays down. Clay lets his head slip under water completely. Seconds after holding his breath, he sits up again, suddenly remembering he didn´t want his hair to get wet. Perfect. It´s not long, it´s just wavy and takes long to dry. He slips back to relax a little longer until the water begins to cool down.  
\--  
“Speaking of which” Clay says after George had told him things about his stream the day before. “When will you reveal that you, like, live here?” he asks. The radio plays songs in the background quietly. George sits on the kitchen counter again, the one by the wall, because of the rising sun lighting the room up. He´s in shadows, but also between a shelf and the stove. The hotplates are not on, so he won´t burn his skin if he wasn´t paying attention. George rolls up the sleeves of his thin, red hoodie. He puts down a glass bottle he just emptied by drinking all its water, which was almost half full. “Uh…I don´t know yet, but I will, soon” George believes. He watches Clay as he takes a big sip of his morning coffee. The eyes of the blonde close every time he takes a sip, George just noticed. Clays eyes open, looking at George. The sun illuminates him, his eyes look like another color, but George can´t really tell which one it could be. Yellow? Green? Gray?  
-  
Clay pulls out his phone to go on Twitter, to escape Georges glare. He doesn´t want to make this awkward by saying anything. “Twitter is strange again” Clay reports. “Oh?” George sounds disinterested. Clay scrolls further “Yeah, people like…talk about theories of whatever”. He turns off his phone. George dangles his feet, he can´t really find something to look at, he watches Clay, then the radio, out the door. Clay feels slightly uneasy. George giggles, Clay smiles at him nervously, asking “What?” George scoffs again “Nothing”. Clay loosens the collar on his rather tight shirt a bit. He usually prefers those over oversized.  
-  
Clays pulse rises slightly. A song fades in from the radio. He recognizes it, but more because it was an audio he´d been confronted with a lot lately. He´s getting tagged in videos in most of his socials, fanart or stream compilations. It´s not exactly how he remembers that song, maybe an acoustic version? He regrets pandering so much, but it´s easy to dismiss people reading too much into it, as long as both him and George think it´s funny. He takes a big sip of his coffee. Out the corner of his eye, Clay sees George pulling the hood over his head. He turns to look at him. Georges cheeks look pink, he´s acting embarrassed. Clay puts the mug down. With a big sigh he slams both his hands on the counter, to the left and right of where George sits. The british flinches. “George.” Clay sounds bothered. “If you think you´re funny, you´re not.” His voice is calm. George looks at him perplexed. “You´d rather anything only happens when you stream?” he asks challenging, Clay can read annoyance in his words. “I mean it´s annoying me, you know that.” He replies. George leans back, almost hitting his head on the wall “Why is that?” His tone suddenly changed into something Clay had not heard before.  
Clays surprised face sends a shiver down Georges spine. George concerns that Clays head is only ever so slightly shorter than his own right now, even though he was sitting and his feet tangle way above the kitchen floor. He sits upright again. All his calmness disappears as he feels Clays body slowly coming closer. The blonde can´t quite read the emotions in Georges face, but he can guess.  
Clays hand moves up to Georges face, his other hand slips further down the counter as he leans forward. George suddenly realizes what´s happening. He´s paralized. Heat rises in his face, he wants to speak, but his mouth won´t move. He feels fingers brushing along his jaw and eventually resting under his chin. He narrows his eyes, but he doesn´t dare to close them completely. Clays hips shove between Georges legs, in order to stand directly on the counters edge. Leaning forward now, Clays body brushes against the red hoodie. Georges heart beats loud enough, he could swear Clay hears it. He clenches his teeth reluctantly, but not painfully crumped.  
(Tw: Kissing; skip to next paragraph)  
Georges body shivers as Clays other hand moves under his hoodie. He softly touches his bare skin, his cold fingers wander up his stomach. George hates it. Clays eyes don´t fully close, he has to look at Georges face as he moves closer. George almost holds his breath. George manages to grip around Clays hand holding his face, his other arm weakly presses against the blondes chest, who moves closer unimpressed. The hand under his chin moves his head a bit, Georges grip around it roughens, but he doesn´t even notice how dull nails try to press into the hand. Clay begins to kiss George as hard as he wants to. He feels Georges warm, soft lips, but they don´t move. The kiss gets softer. It´s the gentlest he´d ever kissed someone before. George exhales onto his lips, his other hand had grabbed the back of Clays shirt. The sudden sound makes Clay pause. George takes advantage of Clays head pulling back a bit to grip both of his hoody’s cords, and he pulls on them, successfully pulling the hood on his head over his face. Perplexed, Clay backs away further. His elbows knock over the glass bottle. It falls straight on the shiny kitchen floor, making a sickening sound, but it doesn´t break. The sound seems to fade out very slowly, Clays ears ring.  
-  
It´s silent for a few moments, only their breathing indicates time is passing at all. “Down” George finally mumbles through the hoodie´s fabric. His voice is weak but demanding. He hopes for Clay to step back a foot or two, but instead two hands gently grab his waist. Clay pulls George from the counter, letting him set his feet on the ground to stand again. He doesn´t let go of his waist though. In one swift motion, George opens his hood again, but he can´t bear to look at Clay. He shoves himself past Clay and quickly out the kitchen, up the stairs. There´s nothing left for Clay to do, other than just watch him leave. He feels sick. George slams his door unintentionally. Why would Clay ever do that? Why? Did George act in a way to cause this? God, what would´ve happened if Nick would´ve left his room and seen them? George doesn´t want to think about it. He buries is face in his cold blankets. Why Clay? If it would´ve been Nick, would he have run off? He wants to scream. Why is no one telling him how they feel before they act? He swallows, he needs water. He hates the taste of the type of coffee Clay and Nick drink.  
-  
Nick stands in the kitchen, beginning to prepare the ingredients for todays lunch. He spots Clay walking in the hall, looking into the kitchen. He joins Nick. “Where´s George?” Nick asks unknowingly. “I don´t know. Maybe he´s not hungry” he stammers. Nick turns to face him. “Clay are you okay? You look sick” he asks him concerned. Nick puts his hand on Clays forehead to check his temperature. Clay slightly leans into the touch. He knows he messed up bad. He needs to feel cared for, Nicks comfort might help. “Have you caught a cold dude?” Nick tries to guess. “I thought you´re tougher than that” he lightens the mood. His hand slips away from Clays face and to a drawer. He opens it with a faint creak. “We should still have some medicine here…” he assumes, rummaging through their box of cough syrups, pills and bandages. “No! No, I´m fine” Clay assures him. “You´re warm” he clarifies, but Clay insists he just needs some water and sleep. Nick still isn´t fully convinced. “If you´re still sick later, I´ll drive you to a doctor” he says. “I´ll be fine. Now let me help you cook.”  
-  
Nick sticks his head out. “GEORGE!” he yells into the hall. Silence. He shouts again. Silence. It annoys Nick. Clay´s already eating the pasta. “Maybe he´s sleeping?” he suggests. Nick shouts again. “Dude, stop. He can warm up the food later” he tries calming him down. “Fine” Nick gives up because he´s hungry as well.  
-  
Nick switches on the dishwasher. “What do you want to do today, Clay? I´m bored” he complains. “Uh…No clue. You got anything in mind?” Clay replies absent. The brow haired boy leans against the counter. “Hm. Video games, beach, forest. Ah…movies?” Clay doesn´t reply. “Come on, dude you gotta help me” he tells his friend. “Sorry, what did you say?” Clay regrets not listening. “Clay. Are you still sick or are you messing with me?” he looks upset. “Sorry. Video games sounds nice. Smash bros?” Clay guesses he said something like that. He´s relieved as Nick nods. “Sounds fun” he agrees.  
-  
One hour, two hours. Nick loses interest in the game He turns off the switch. Clay sits with his elbows on the knees. He leans forward and catches his face in his hands. “I´m going into my room” Clay announces as he lifts his head again. “Alright” Nick smiles at him.  
-  
Clay doesn´t feel bad anymore, really. He´s still not sure if he´s overreacting or if it´s worse than he thinks. Clay sits down on his desk. He turns on his laptop out of habit and strolls around Discord, YouTube and eventually again Twitter. He hears footsteps somewhere around the house and then, everything falls silent. The door to his room creaks opens slowly. He turns his chair around, expecting Nick with medicine or something. Instead, he´s looking in two dark brown eyes, almost black. And they´re cold.  
-  
Clays face lightens up. George wishes it didn´t. “We need to talk” he says, his tone is serious. “Oh” Clays voice dies out, his eyes darken, he coughs lightly. He puts his headphones off and on his desk, they almost slip out his hands. George sits down on the bed. Very provocative. Maybe unintentional, but still bad. Georges look softens as he begins to speak. “Listen, I know it´s my fault. I caused this”. Clay tries not to stare, he doesn´t say anything. “I came to say that I´m sorry…I hope you…don´t…” George tries to continue. Clay is silent. “Please say something, Clay.” He wants to create eye contact. “React!” he asks, almost desperate. “Why George?” Clays voice is rough. “You…you just let it happen!” he finally bursts out. “You held the back of my shirt! You held me- “he almost chokes on air.  
George definitely didn´t expect any kind of harsh reaction from Clay. He sits there, dumbfounded. “You could´ve at least moved” Clay grumbles, almost whispering. George makes silent sounds that could be an attempt to begin a sentence, but “I´m sorry” is all he can say. “Your apologies are bad” Clay replies cold. George wants to disappear, he stares down at his hands. “Clay…do you- I mean are you…what do you feel?” he finally confronts him.  
Then they´re both silent for a bit. “I don´t know” Clay confesses “It felt wrong because you hated it.” George breaths in, but it sounds more like a sniff. He talks tired, his voice shivers “I can´t look at you, Dream” Clay swears he felt like someone just hit him in the chest. George looks up, he catches a glimpse of hurt in his light eyes. He forces a smile on his lips, even if his eyes begin to feel watery. “Clay. We won´t lose each other through this…will we?”  
Clay barely stands when he shoves himself towards the bed. George is surprised when Clay hugs him, surely, but Clay can feel his body shiver ever so slightly. George wraps his arms around him as well, he unintentionally tries to make himself smaller. The soft ground he´s sitting on and the warm, loose arms around him do seem to calm him down. There are no tears, barely held back. For Clay it feels like he´s holding a sobbing face against his shoulder. It dawns on him that something must have been on Georges mind even before this morning. “Don´t worry.” Clay breathes. He swallows down thoughts he can´t put in words just yet. More important are those he understands. And that is to keep what they had built up and not go further in the wrong direction. For the sake of the three of them.  
-  
He leaves Clays room right after the blonde had made sure George was fine again. Now Nick joins him, beginning to complain about him sleeping through lunch. He hasn´t been sleeping, he was clearing his mind by listening to music and even reading a bit. George warms up some pasta. Nick waits by the table, bored out of his mind and waiting to get someone to talk. George had hoped for some more alone time, but Nick being here is fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story is a bit chaotic, I know. I´m sorry.  
> Also, regret. That´s all I´m saying. I don´t really like what I write anymore, I´m not sure what to do with this story. I probably will go on until I find a way to end it. Ty for reading.


	9. Distant music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just another day.

Road trips tunes slowly fade out, along with Clays singing voice. George turns on his face am. “Hello” he laughs “I´m here”. He´s nervous. George looks at his monitors, reading early greetings from the twitch chat. He likes the new background picture he had set up for his green screen. “Okay. Today chat: big announcement” he says smiling, his hart races. Nick and Clay sit on his bed, Nick was looking at him impatiently, Clay seems more unbothered. A few more minutes of George just talking, until he assumes all his viewers had gotten a notification. “Alright, guys guess what?” he sees his chat spam many different things. George still thinks about how he could begin his next sentence, thankfully Nick starts cheering out of nowhere. It´s fair to say everyone was going crazy once he finally comes into frame. George scoots over to let Nick sit next to him on the relatively wide chair. Clay sits relatively comfortable on the bed, but he lets himself drop backwards. The sheets are unmade and feel chill. They smell like Georges shampoo and a bit like dog. The fact that a camera is running live just a few feet away from him make him a bit nervous. Clay looks around. George has his greenscreen up, of course, but his room is tidy, and his personal stuff is way out of view. Pictures hang on the walls his laptop is not facing. Wooden frames, holding pictures of family, pets, selfies, memories behind protecting glass. There´s one of the three of them. Clay has to smile. They took that picture just a day ago. It looks a bit goofy, the picture, but it´s nice.  
-  
“Just Chatting” really is one of Georges most enjoyable types of streams. Both Nick and George answer donation questions and basically talk about how it came to them meeting. He´s still nervous to say that Nick didn´t visit him, instead he himself moved in. It´s not even an hour into the stream when Clay suddenly clears his throat. Both Georges and Nicks head turn to him, Nick bursts out laughing. George covers his face, smiling because he knows his friend just took away the big reveal. His long-wheezed laugh lights the chat up with a ton of messages. Almost everyone has recognized Clays voice. The chat is flooded with “Dream” or emotes. Clay sits up. He looks at George, he knows the blonde wants to say that the dream team was living together now. George nods. Might as well let him. And Clay does tell chat and Nick checks twitter to see that they were trending again. It´s quite cheerful. George almost leans against Nicks shoulder because a relaxing feeling almost overwhelmed him enough to forget that he was still live.  
-  
Phasmophobia. A popular horror game. Nick hat gotten his laptop and so did Clay. They are about to start a round, still streaming of course. They try to scare each other like usual, just that it doesn´t work as effectively. They are sitting next to each other still. Clay can´t focus on the game, anytime he knows a jump scare is incoming, he watches his two friends going from giggling to screaming. One time George screams so loud Nick honestly has to pause for a second to blink a few times. Other than that, it´s pretty chill.  
-  
The radio in the kitchen plays louder than usual. Patches white paws look like socks or snow. Her fur is very smooth, she spends long time cleaning herself and Clay often brushes her fur as well. Patches pupils grow larger as George holds both her paws in the air. “Careful” Clay laughs. The cat flinches and slips out of Georges grip. She shakes her fur and scratches her ear. George pats on the pillow in front of him. Usually Patches sleeps on the pillows on the couch. If there are more people in the room, she searches for a quiet place outside the living room instead. Now Patches stays, but she looks directly at George, aggressively wagging her tail. “Is she going to jump me?” George asks, side eying Clay nervously. He wheezes a “She might.” And Patches jumps slightly forward, gets scared by Georges short, not too loud scream, and runs off into the hall. George frowns “She still doesn´t like me.” Clay smiles as he watches his cat run back inside. “Give it some time” he says calm. “Foods ready” Nick shouts from the kitchen.  
-  
George snatches Nicks phone out his hands. He hides it in the pocket of his black hoodie and escapes out of his reach. Clay sits o one of the new chairs for the kitchen island, watching them chase each other. He´s annoyed, Nick and George are loud and having a blast. Occasionally George hides behind Clay, asking for help while giggling. Clay remembers playing Minecraft and having to deal with his two friends fighting, because George doesn´t say “Clay”, but instead “Dream”. Nick grabs George from behind to get the phone sneaky, but they just end up almost falling on the floor a few times. George is constantly giggling, talking inaudibly and out of breath. Nick was playing angry, but he too was laughing. Clay just assumes they will hit their head against the wall at some point. They´re like children. Nick lets himself fall on the couch once he finally gets hold of his phone. They still hold on to each other, so George falls down with him, almost missing the couch, if it wasn´t for Nick to react. He sits up, waving his phone is his hand proudly to Clay, who turns away with a sigh. “George you good?” Nick asks to his still laying friend. “I just thought I was gonna fall” he breathes. Nick laughs at him “You´re such an idiot”. George sits up. “Hey. You were chasing me” he defends himself. “You took my stuff in the first place” Nick replies offended. Now they´re playfully fighting again. Clay ignores them. He´s on his phone, going through Twitter. Like so many times that day already. He is kind of surprised that a few people had gotten together to try and prove that George didn´t really move in. Or more, just Nick was there, and Clay was just on Discord. Clay can´t be mad about that since that thing with the vlog happened.  
-  
Nick has a headache, he went to sleep after the medicine took longer than half an hour to even begin to help. Clay puts on other clothes, his hoodie is too warm. He is in the mood to stream. He already had streamed not too long ago, it wasn´t his usual schedule, but just running around in a Minecraft world, playing a bit while talking to his audience. So he boots up Minecraft, starting his streaming settings and hitting the “go live” button. He enjoys the chill vibes of this early Friday afternoon, the sun is shining into the room. Usually he closes his blinds, but right now it just feels good. He hears a distant bark, their door to the garden open and close again. The dog has developed some kind of barking system. George seems to hear if it wants outside, inside food, playtime, whatever.  
-  
A soft voice suddenly fills the almost silence of his room. “Clay?” Clay nods in the direction of his monitors. George stops dead in his tracks. The younger one can already guess that George still wants to stay. Chat is spamming “Clay”. They heard it. George comes closer. “Hi Chat!” he greets them. “You got a chair?” George asks quietly, looking around. Clay pauses. It becomes painfully aware that the morning he embarrassed himself so bad was just two days ago. He shies away a bit from their usual way of joking around on streams. He can´t resist doing it anyway. He knows he´ll stop once George gets uncomfortable. He pats on his lab loudly. George just looks at him, kinds annoyed. “Okay” he says snooty, actually sitting down. He makes himself as wide and heavy as possible. “How are you gonna play now?” he grins. Clay is relieved that George was relaxed around him. George giggles as Clay tries to move his character in game, very laborious. Chat has picked up on their pandering. George stands up, Clay feels a bit cold. “Actually, do you have a spare thing for me to sit?” George requests.  
-  
George puts down the chair he picked up from Nicks room and sits down comfortably. Clay rolls a bit sideways with his chair to make more room. At first, George just watches. Donations were asking in whose room they are, what they are wearing and what how their day had been together. People are really asking for more and more shipping content. Clay and George have to blame themselves. If they got used to make bits like that in every stream, of course viewers are expecting more, especially now that they are next to each other in person. “Uhm…we are in my room, this is where I record” Clay begins to answer. “I´m wearing just like a shirt and pants. I like it cooler. George is cold I think” he continues. “Nah its just comfy” George defends himself. Messages in the chat are going “THAT Dream hoodie?” and Clay looks down at George. He hadn´t even noticed it really, but it really is the oversized one. He scoffs. Enough to give chat confirmation. “Anyways, today was pretty calm, we didn´t even do anything the whole day” he ends, still smiling.  
-  
The last half hour of that stream, the two of them try to control the Minecraft avatar through Clay using the keyboard and George the mouse. It was fun at first, but extremely frustrating. Clay eventually ends stream with saying thank you to the many viewers, while George brings Nicks chair back. He´s offline. Clay stands up and stretches until his body does this little shiver. He exhales. “Where´s Nick?” Clay calls out. “He drove away to buy something I think” he hears Georges distant voice. Clay comes outside, only to hear the radio had been on the whole time. A popular song is running, George sings along a bit. Since they´re bored they simply start some karaoke. Parts of a song, they sing along honestly, other times they just scream. George likes Clays singing voice, it´s soothing. Clays own song does suit him, but George assumes a calmer song wound might suit his voice more.  
-  
The car engine stops and shortly after, Nick comes inside through the garage. He has two bags with him. No plastic bags, but white linen bags. They have a few of them in the house and they usually always take some with them when getting groceries or buying stuff in general. Nick puts the bags on the kitchen island after taking of his shoes with his legs. George looks inside the bags while Nick goes back in the hall to hang his coat on the clothes rack. George guesses he too had changed clothes before driving off, he was now wearing a pale shirt, not a baggy sweater. Nick presets George and Clay what he had bought. Nothing special though. Frozen pizzas, juice, some ingredients for the soup he wanted to cook with George. Clay helps putting the groceries away, George instead just talks with them.  
-  
George and Nick are talkative again and Clay needs some silence. He escapes into his room. He plays music from a YouTube playlist as background noise. He finds an acoustic-version playlist, the first few songs of which he knows, so he starts it. Patches later joins him to get her cuddles. Clay´s not tired really, he just needs some quiet. His door isn´t closed fully, so he does hear parts of conversations between George and Nick in the living room. He hears music from what he thinks is Animal Crossing and later Smash Bros since George does his excited screams and Nick sounds frustrated. The blonde is kind of glad he wasn´t with them right now. He´s not really interested in those games and it´s just boring watching them play. He instead lays down in his bed and switches through his socials. There was some sweet fanart of the whole dream team already. Them playing Minecraft side by side or cuddling. Almost like that one time they all fell asleep on the couch. Clay smiles. He ignores the few pieces of art people already made from his stream earlier. He can´t help to look at it since they´re all so well made. And they´re cute and innocent, and fiction, so why not. Eventually Clay just puts his phone away to give Patches, who jumped on his chest, all his attention.  
-  
The sky is burning. Bright yellow, deep orange, and soft red. The whole sky looks like flames. There are almost no clouds, the few that are there are light up in a pale yellow. Nick watches the sunset in quiet admiration until the last beams of sun fade to dark. It´s quiet in the room since they turned off the tv, and the radio is off as well. Nick takes a breath. “George, do you want to sleep together again?” he asks. George looks at him confused. “I thought you said you slept horrible last time?” he remembers. “That wasn´t because of you” he assures. George takes his time to answer. Nick stands up to shower and go to bed early. He hadn´t slept when he was trying to get rid of his headache. He dearly awaits sleep.  
-  
George lets the steaming hot water run down his body. It´s almost too hot, but he likes it that way right now. He lets his skin soak in the heat. Once outside the shower he quickly brushes his teeth, rubs through his slightly wet hair, and throws on some random pajamas. He stops by his room to garb his pillow. Once he enters Nicks room, he can feel the cold creeping under his skin already. He quickly crawls under the sheets, cuddling info the rough fabric of Nicks new sheets. The mattress feels like it´s nestling around his body. He just now begins to feel tired, his body feels too heavy to move. Nick himself was already almost asleep at this point, George can´t see anything in the dark room anymore, but he can feel him turn around. Nicks arms grab around him sleepy, George lets him. He knows he´s warm and that way, they both get to keep that warmth a little longer, until they fall asleep. Nick gets to sleep a while before George does. He feels content, like this really is what he had missed without knowing. George assumes he feels that way because he hadn´t had people near him when sleeping in a long time. With that on his mind, he finally drifts into a deep, dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing to say this time, other than I want to write some angst soon. Ty for reading!


	10. Soft rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talking helps.

Sunday morning. It´s foggy outside. It looks like it´s still very early into this morning, but the clock says 9 am. The air is just a bit colder. Clay is wearing some dark pants, thick socks and only a short-sleeved shirt. He doesn´t feel cold at all. He is wide awake and makes breakfast. He slept good the last two days. Today he´s planning on working on a new video, it´s been two days since he had streamed and he wasn´t really interacting with anything online recently. Might as well do something. Nick comes into the room again, he had only quickly changed into something comfortable for the day. He begins to make coffee while Clay prepares some toast.  
-  
George wakes up quickly once his eyes open. He moves ever so slightly, only to notice his hand was painfully numb. He had slept on it. It tingles. George lifts his face out the pillow. It´s colder than he expected. He lays down again for a bit until finally shaking off his sleepiness. His clothes are warm, he doesn´t want to change into a cold hoodie from his closet. He waddles down the stairs and into the kitchen, followed by Patches.  
-  
“Moring Gogy” Nick laughs. He puts the mugs down. He steps toward George who still stands in the door. As Nick gets close, George briefly stands up on tiptoes to faintly brush by Nicks cheek with his own. Right after, George sits down by the table with a big yawn. Clay had watched them out the corner of his eyes, he looks away as Nick turns again. “What´s the matter Clay? Want kissies?” Nick jokes. “What?” Clays indignant voice sounds raspy. “I did not” George complains tired. Nick giggles, Clay brushes it off with a scoff. He knows he´s not really jealous that George seems to express himself more when he´s with Nick. It´s not that remarkable, they´re all close. Clay might just get that impression because he was careful when interacting with George. Maybe that´s why.  
-  
There´s nothing to do really for the rest of the morning. Clay and George switch through the channels on tv, they only find low budget movies or other uninteresting programs. At some point Nick joins them again. Instead of sitting down like a normal person, Nick uses some pillows and both his friend’s legs to build a place to lay down. “You´re such an idiot” Clay laughs, he feels how Nick purposefully makes himself as heavy as he can. “Dude” George tries to shove Nicks shoulder off his lap. Nick pushes himself up and presses his elbows into Georges legs. “OW” he gasps. Nick rolls off them laughing. He sits up and squeezes himself in the space between George and Clay. They do watch a bit of a movie until Nick figures it´s time to start cooking the soup.  
-  
George and Nick split up the cooking. Often Nick has to switch from the stove to the countertop to the kitchen island, while George stays in mostly the same place. Nick makes space for himself by occasionally gently pushing George out of his way. The way he briefly grabs Georges arms or waist and George just being okay with it is something Clay notices even while sitting on the couch a bit further away. Surely that doesn´t mean anything, they would´ve mentioned something to him. Especially Nick, the two of them don’t really keep secrets from each other. Or did that change already? He concentrates on the movie.  
-  
The soup tastes really good. It took about another hour to cook on its own until it was ready. Clay eats two bowls full, so does Nick, George only manages to eat one. Now Nick takes his daily jog, Clay goes to edit his video in the kitchen since he´s sick of being in his room all the time. George lays on the couch. The two barely talk. Soon Clay finds himself watching Georges eyes close and open repeatedly, his head falls out his hand a few times. George curls up. Right after Clay hears his evenly breathing. He looks over again, George is sound asleep. His phone is still on. Clay silently stands up, sneaks to the couch and squats down. He thinks about taking the phone. He could snap pictures of his friend and see when he notices them in his camera roll, he could tweet something, wait a minute and then delete it. He could, but he doesn´t. Clay looks at Georges face. The british moves his lips, mouthing silent words. Clay expects himself to have that feeling. That familiar, wrong feeling but, again he doesn´t. He turns off Georges phone and goes back to editing.  
-  
Nick comes back after quite a while, effectively loud, waking George from his nap. The two of them talk, Clay doesn´t listen. Now something else fills his mind. He swallows, his throat is dry. Is it jealousy? That Nick took George? That George took Nick? He´s not even close to sure if it really is that or if he just feels excluded. Clay is usually never clueless about his feelings, but this time he feels lost. There´s one thing he knows. The cause of any of this is George.  
-  
Clay is in his room, looking out the window. He watches Patches jump over the garden fence and onto a field. Georges dog watches her leave. Clay leaves his room, puts some shoes on and goes out in the garden. The air outside has gotten very humid since the beginning of this afternoon. Clay looks around. It´s cloudy and it feels like it could rain any second. George steps outside next to Clay. The blonde ignores his presence until George sighs. “It´s so much nicer than I imagined” he says. Clay looks at him confused. “Living here” George ads. Clay bites his lip. He murmurs “Well let me guess why”, suppressing an upcoming feeling of bitterness. “What did you say?” George still sounds calm. “I think I know why” Clay words it. “What do you mean?” George begins to act nervous. “Oh, come on.” Clay mocks.  
-  
The sudden seriousness surprises George. When Clay continues to speak, he does that thing with his voice where he gets abnormally calm. Like a storm is about to break in. “We´ve been friends for so long. I´m not blind. You made me feel like an asshole when you said I would ruin everything.” Clay finally spits out “It´s not that I mind you being with Nick.” Clay continues, but George interrupts him with “What are you talking about?” Clays cold eyes burn though him. They begin to show a trace of annoyance as he steps closer. “The most important thing for you is our friendship, right? Then how comes you and Nick begin to act different with each other?” his voice provokes George to react. “You lied to my face, George. And you did nothing to hide it after” he says quiet, but George hears it loud like angry screaming. At least it feels like it. “Why do you get upset over assuming something?” George argues back. “You´re not fair, Clay.” “And you´re insensitive” the blondes voice gets louder. “I don´t have feelings for either of you, but what if I had?” Georges face instantly switches from offended to stunned. George has to admit to himself that Nick and he are closer than before. He never asked Clay about his feelings, so joking around with Nick like that in front of him could´ve easily hurt him.  
-  
“I…I didn´t mean to hurt you” George whispers, causing Clay to pause. Suddenly he understands that he himself doesn´t know why he´s mad. There was more than just jealousy about being excluded. “I hate you George” Clay´s surprised by his own words. George watches him, totally overwhelmed. “I can´t breathe” he says silently through clenched teeth, not looking directly into Georges face. He wants to turn when George grabs the sleeve of his shirt. Clay turns his bland gaze around. George looks at him resolved. He takes a breath to say something, but Clay talks first. “Either I leave, or you do.” His sharp tone isn´t like any George had heard from Clay before.  
-  
Suddenly a cool drop lands on Georges head, then another, Clays shoulders catch a few raindrops as well. Georges dog runs past both of them and into the house. The air quickly begins to smell like wet pavement and soaked moss. Clay and George run inside. Rain´s pouring down heavy from one second to the other. Clays shirt gets wet quickly and Georges hair seems to catch most of the drops. They step inside without caring about the floor getting wet. They´re met by Nick coming from the hall. He´s wearing new clothes. He must have taken a shower after jogging, his hair was still wet despite the soft white towel on his head. “What are you doing? Now the floor´s dirty!” he complains.  
-  
The three of them sit around the kitchen table. It´s almost completely quiet. Only George rubbing his hair with the towel and the soft knocks of rain against glass are audible. It´s calming. Clay had quickly changed into a sweater, out of his wet clothing. Georges hoodie wasn´t as wet. Nobody says anything. Nick seems to wait for them to begin. He slams a hand on the desk to wake them both out of their staring into nothing. How mean. It takes George a few seconds to normalize his heartbeat after that scare. “Sorry I didn´t mean to be that loud” Nick says embarrassed. George takes a deep breath. “We need to talk about this now. It´s just going to cause more pain if we don´t.” he finally begins. Nick still doesn´t know what´s going on exactly.  
-  
“Clay, what do you feel?” George looks up at him. “I don´t know” he says cold “I feel something”. Now it dawns on Nick. “Clay you know I would always listen to you if there´s something wrong” Nick reminds him worried. Clay seems to get a bit more relaxed through his calming words. “I know” Clay sighs. “I just don´t get what´s going on myself”. Nick gets more worried. “You sounded angry. You barely ever do” he says and sees how George just wants to disappear into thin air. “Okay. I want you to tell me what´s up with you and George” the blonde suddenly asks. Nick hesitates, he looks at George, who still stares onto the desk. “Nothing I suppose” Nick finally answers. Clay doesn´t seem convinced. “Do you like George?” Nick asks in disbelieve. “Like I said, I don´t know” he mumbles nervously. “Do you like Nick?” George silently asks unexpected, Clay shrugs. Nick has another question on his mind. “George” his voice is calm “What about you?” The british flinches ever so slightly. “Maybe” he admits slowly. “C-Clay or I?” Nick pushes. “Both…maybe” Georges head spins, he looks at Clay timidly. The blonde avoids his eyes, suppressing a looming but mild anger.  
-  
“You two are like teenagers” Nick jokes. He successfully pulls George out of his tense state, Clay just gets more perplexed. “I think for now we should just calm down a bit.” Nick says with an honest and easy voice. “We now know what the problems are…” George joins in. None of them would´ve ever thought they´d bee in a situation like this. With all over the place feeling like this. Yet here they are. “Let´s just be easy with each other until we´ve cleared our minds or got some understanding of what´s happening” Nick suggests calm. Clay and George look like they feel a bit more at ease again. Nick sighs. The storm wasn´t exactly over yet, but at least they finally talked in all honesty.  
-  
Nicks room is warm. The window is tilted open slightly. Any of the smells a storm usually brings with it are forced away by more pleasant smells of warm soap and shampoo. Other than breathing, light knocks from the rain is all he can hear. George sits upright on the far right side of Nicks bed by the wall, and he´s reading a book. Clay lays in the middle, staring up at the ceiling. Nick lays on the left side. He has more than enough space to not fall off. His bed really was big. He pulls the blanket over himself and partly over Clay. He just wants to sleep. He prays the others don´t begin to talk. They don´t. Clay is tired as well and George considers his book as more interesting.  
-  
Nicks eyes open to a dimly lit bedroom. His eyes adjust to the darkness. George is laying at the top of the bed, half his body on a pillow. He´s asleep. Just now he noticed the warm body between him and George. Clays back is turned to him, his face rests by Georges chest, he got his arms wrapped around Georges body, who has his arms laying on Clay, touching Nicks arms. One of Georges legs rest on top of Clays waist. The blanket is elsewhere. Nick puts his arms off Clays shoulder and sits up. It´s so cozy and warm, but he feels left out. Nick carefully pushes Georges leg off Clay. “Nick stop” Clays dry voice is very quiet and muffled through the pillow. Nicks mind is still halfway asleep. “Get off George” he grunts. The blonde shoves himself back a little, the sheets crinkle softly under his movements. He´s made some space, Nick crawls between George and him and lays down. Clay closes his eyes again, nestling his head in the new position of the pillow. He sighs silently, putting his hand over Nick. Georges arms are now over Nick as well. Clay breathes against his hair, but it doesn´t bother him. Clay´s asleep again quickly, George hadn´t woken up. Nick lays there for a while, letting his mind wander.  
\--  
Clay is awoken through light but steadily pushing on his stomach. He knows it´s Patches, he reaches for her without opening his eyes. Her head bumps into his hand, but she decides against cuddling and instead just leaves. That lets Clay look. Patches sneaks out the door again. Clay hears more rain outside, it probably rained all night. He feels slow movement to his right and suddenly he´s met by cold. George sits up and through that the still sleeping Nick is pushed aside a little.  
-  
George attempts to slip out of bed silently. He almost shrieks as warm hands reach for him. Clays chin settles on Georges shoulder. He feels the weight he puts down by leaning on him, but it´s not too uncomfortable. “Dou you hate me?” Clays voice is so softened and dozy that George just wants to bundle him into a blanket and comfort him back to sleep. “You know I don´t” he whispers back, disappointed by the lack of warmth in his own voice. Clays face brushes along his neck. “I´m sorry” he breathes while closing his eyes again. He wraps his arms around George with a loose grip, feeling how his chest moves along his calm breathing. Clay pulls him backwards unexpectedly. George breathes in, a soft sound escapes his mouth. Clays stomach drops. Is it about George? Was it really him and not Nick to begin with? He lays back down, pulling George with him. The cozy warmth of both Nick and Clay beside him clears him from any reluctance. He feels a wave of tiredness luring him back to sleep, he closes his eyes. Clays warm breath against his ear gives him goosebumps. “Please don´t let us regret any of this, ever” he whispers, so silent that George isn´t even sure he understood him right. George answers with a tender groan of complaint. Everything after escapes his mind.  
-  
The room is still dark, but the blinds are a crack wide open. A thin, upright beam of light from the outside falls into the room. It reaches Georges face partly. He blinks against the brightness. He sits up and stretches himself. George is alone, the door is left open a bit. He stands up and opens the blinds to open the window. The air is a bit stale inside. Georges mind id still sleepy. He suddenly thinks about how much has happened until now. He can´t fully grasp that it is only his 18th day here. He leaves Nicks room, leaving the door open. How late is it? He´s about to pass Clays room when he hears noise from inside.  
-  
He takes a peek. Clay stands by his wardrobe, searching through his clothes to wear something aside the pants he already got on. George just now notices two pale, thin scars on Clays back, right below his shoulder. “Clay?”. The blonde spins around. “George! You scared me!” he says loudly. “Sorry” George excuses himself, directing his eyes away. “When did you get those scars?” he asks shyly. It´s the first time George sees Clays face blush ever so slightly. The freckles on his cheeks seem to get a little lighter, George notices how many there are. Clay looks into his wardrobe again, brushing a hand through his hair. “I got into a lot of trouble as a kid” he says, his voice sounds embarrassed through his light smile. George decides against asking further. Clay quickly throws on a shirt. “Nick´s waiting with breakfast” he says, pushing George out the door with him.  
-  
“Moring Gogy” Nick calls out for them even before they reach the entrance to the kitchen. “Good morning” George enters before Clay. Nick leans forth to kiss Georges cheek. “Stop” George backs away, his face heats up. Nick giggles, Clays hand lays down on the british´s shoulder. He too blows a kiss on Georges other cheek once he tilts his head back to him. “Stop” he holds his blushing cheeks, voice flustered, he tries not to smile. Clay passes by George to enter the kitchen as well. They´re both acting pretty easy minded and unbothered. George is perplexed. This is wrong. How fast this could become something bad. Something unhealthy. He´s just overreacting. His friends are joking around, like always. They´re probably both trying to ease everyone’s minds a little after yesterdays happenings. “Want some tea, George?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the story is strage at the moment, i kinda already gave up. Nevertheless, ty all for reading!!


	11. Warm wind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How can a complicated relationship between three people work?

The brown-haired boy sits down by the table. He lets the other two serve the breakfast, but he waits for them to sit down before eating something. Breakfast tastes better when they eat together. The tea is still hot, Nick mixed in a little too much sugar. George doesn´t say anything, he likes it anyway.  
-  
It´s been a while since George last uploaded something on his main channel. The video he had worked on recently is almost finished. He focuses for another hour, then he´s finally finished. He leans back in his chair and spins slowly. Should he upload it tomorrow? No, he´ll do it right now. Why would he have hurried? George ventures through Twitter while the video gets uploaded. He advertises his video, then he gets sick of sitting in his room in silence. He takes off his pajamas and thinks about what to wear for longer than usual. Is it going to be warm today? Or cold? While rummaging through his hoodies, he finds one sweater he hasn´t worn since he got it. It´s soft blue, not too thin and not too thick fabric. It would be what he was searching for, but one reason he hadn´t worn it yet is the fact that it has cut-outs on both shoulders. George had a shirt with those a while back, that resulted in him getting a sunburn, however. Well today that wouldn´t really happen, he assumes and just decides on wearing it.  
-  
Downstairs is quiet. The kitchen is empty. George doesn´t want to watch tv either. He goes out in the garden. Is he just imagining it or is it getting warmer again? The breeze hitting his face is definitely warm. Birds sing, it smells like spring. Strange. There is dull sound of Patches jumping off the fence. She runs over to him, wagging her tail softly. She bumps her head against his leg. George crouches down and pats her head, her fur is warm and soft. Just second after, Patches tries to hit her claws in his hand again. He sighs. “Let me love you” he complains, the cat just looks at him with thin pupils. George picks up a stick and wags it around on the grass in front of Patches. She´s immediately interested and begins to chase after it. She hits it a few times, bites it and afterwards spits out the bark, because she tries to eat it every time. Typical cat, she doesn´t like the toys Clay buys her, no matter if they are expensive or cheap.  
-  
George stays outside a bit longer. He wants to go into that forest close to their house, but he doesn´t know how big it is and he´s definitely not eager to get lost. He goes back inside. The few minutes he aimlessly walks up and down the kitchen don´t even wake his appetite. He´s more bored than he´d like to admit. He´s too stubborn to go over to Nicks room and ask him if hes got work. He doesn´t want to bother Clay either. The couch shakes a bit when he dops himself onto it. He doesn´t bother to make himself light. He piles up all the pillows and blankets and makes himself comfortable. He´s scrolling on Instagram, but soon enough, he puts his phone down. It´s cozy, he stretches and closes his eyes.  
-  
Nick leaves his room, he sees Georges dog waiting in front of Clays door. He opens it, the dog just goes to sniff on Clay sitting in his chair and then leaving again. Nick laughs, Clay´s just confused. “I´m making some tea again” Nick tells his friend. “Want some?” Clay stands up to follow him.  
-  
At first, neither of the two notice George napping on the couch. Clay makes the tea for them, Nick waits. When he hears breathing, he spots the pile of blankets on the couch. George mumbles something in his sleep, like usual when his sleep is a little more restless. Nick waves his hand slightly to get Clays attention. Clay giggles as silently as possible. “He´s napping again?” Nicks smile fades. “Do you think he´s about to get sick?” he whispers. Clay bends down to push some pillows aside and touch Georges forehead. “He´s not hot” he assures. “You sure?” Nick grins. Clay scoffs an embarrassed “You´re such an idiot”. He stands up. Nick looks up at him. “Do you think he´ll be mad if I take a photo?” he jokes. Clay shrugs. “If you do, send it to me as well” he tells him while stepping into the kitchen again. Nick does snap a quick photo, just to tease George with it later when he´s bored or when George is annoying him again.  
-  
The spoon clinks on the side of the ceramic mug. Clay accidently put Nicks tea down a little harsh. He feels like the whole atmosphere is still pretty chill, so he´s relaxed and basically stuck in his own thoughts. Nicks serious face shatters that impression.  
-  
“Is something up?” Clay asks innocently and sips his tea. “What caused you to get so angry yesterday?” Nick asks suddenly. Clay looks straight ahead. “I thought we´d let that rest for a bit” he says dry. “Please tell me.” But the blonde doesn´t budge. “Listen, I think we could make this work” Nick finally expresses his thoughts. Clay keeps quiet, Nick leans back against a counter and lets out a heavy sigh. “No matter how we put it, one of us is always going to end up with a broken heart” Nick squints over to Clay, who still stays silent. “We´re not getting out of this now” Nicks voice sounds way to calm for such bitter words. “Talk to me, Clay” Nick asks patiently. Clay wants to just spill out his mind, Nick knows how to crack him up. And he lets it happen.  
-  
“I…I know I like George…” Clay begins reluctantly. He takes a big breath. “And I like you, but I´m not sure how yet” he suddenly feels like talking gets easier. “We´ve known each other for so long, maybe it just feels weird because George is here or because there are so many feelings between all of us-“ Clay almost begins to talk gibberish but he stops himself beforehand. He´s having a much better time talking about this when George isn´t there, watching him. Nick smiles at him calming. “Yeah, there´s a lot of feelings” Nick answers, still as calm as before. “I wouldn’t mind being together with both of you” he suggests.  
-  
Clay looks at him doubtful. He doesn´t really feel like that´ll do for long but he must admit that he has no clue if it would actually work or not. “Don´t you think it´s the best we could do for now?” Nick leans over. Clay breathes in with a heavy feeling on his chest. Nick gets sick of waiting for Clay to make up his mind and finally answer, so he pulls him in into a hug. At first the blonde wants to protest, but he soon realizes how well he feels being held. Nick pats his back slowly. Clay overreacts sometimes.  
-  
Almost midday. George woke up just a little bit ago. Since then, George sits in his corner, still cuddled in his pillows and Clay rests his head on Georges lap. George plays softly with Clays hair from time to time he´s not dozing off. His hair gets all messy but it´s an easy fix and it feels nice right now. The blonde looks up at him, eyes half closed. Clay can see just how sleepy George still is. He thinks he can even see eyebags. Does George sleep enough at night? “You really don´t feel ill?” Clay wants to be certain. “I´m fine” George whispers, smiling kindly.  
-  
“Y´all want pizza?” Nick´s already about to dial the number. “Sure” George answers for both him and Clay. He let Clay play on his animal Crossing island for a bit. Even though he doesn´t even like the game that much, he bagged George to let him build a house as player three. Player two is Nick already. George had arranged a little area for Clay to build and decorate a little garden. Right now, he´s more interested in fishing tough.  
-  
The pizza takes long to arrive. They eat slow. Kinda a sleepy day today, not only for George. Clay stretches himself as he throws the pizza boxes away. “I´ll stream with Karl later” Nick announces. “You guys wanna join?”. George drinks his glass of water empty. “On the SMP?” he asks interested. “No, we´ll make the skyblock challenge” he explains. George loses interest immediately. Clay giggles “I might join for a bit I think.”  
-  
George left some slices of pizza untouched, but he´s full already. He stands up and puts them alongside the other leftovers on a plate and into the oven, so they won´t be in the way. George feels fit. He wants to take a walk to the forest near the house or the one Nick had shown him the day Clay arrived back. “Have you been in our little forest?” George asks in Clays direction since Nick had gone in his room. Clay nods. “Is it big? Could I get lost?” George asks further. “It´s like smaller here, but it gets quite wide later on. There´s a hiking path.” Clay remembers. “I can show you” he offers, the british smiles glad.  
-  
It´s pleasantly shady. Thin beams of the sun above paint shadows on the floor through all the leaves. Dark wooded trees with a dry, thick bark and lush leaves. The path is wide. As soon as it ends there are wide fields of bouncy, wet moss. The perfect place for mushrooms to grow. Humid and warm. But George can´t see any. It smells like it though, the smell he can´t quite put, but he´d recognize it once he smells it. They walk a bit and gradually George sees the pale red heads of toadstools or the muddy brown caps of other mushrooms. George snaps a few pictures. It´s so beautiful here, he´s aware that none of his photos will get close to how it actually looks.  
-  
There´s a small clearing in front of them. A small cliff rises up almost vertically. It´s not deep, George might reach the top if he´d stand on Clay shoulders. Knowing his luck though, he wouldn´t dare jumping off. Above there seems to be even more forest after the small plateau. There´s no wind blowing, it´s all held up by the trees. George closes his eyes for a few seconds to breathe in some more fresh air.  
-  
A few melodies play in his head, he´d love to find one he can connect this moment onto. But there´s just a phrase in his head now. Is it from a song? Maybe from one of his books? “Do you believe in soulmates, Clay?” he asks. Clay looks back at him unsure. “What?” he laughs. “I just have a melody in my head” George says while looking up to the treetops. “But do you?” Clay tilts his head slightly, “Hm...I´m not sure. Could be” he suggests. George isn´t the type to think about topics like that, it leaves his head as quickly as it came. He catches up to Clay. “Do you want to go back, or should we go the whole path?” Clay asks, the brown-haired boy responds with a simple “I´m not tired.” So they proceed into the with singing birds filled forest.  
-  
“You guys were out over 2 hours” Nick tells them as they get back. George is baffled. Yes, he didn´t look at the time once, but the walk didn´t feel like hours at all. He´s thirsty all of a sudden, he drinks more than half a bottle. Nick sits on the kitchen table, George decides to join him. They talk a bit but end up just turning on the tv and watching a show from the table. George doesn´t want to lay down, he´s afraid he´ll fall asleep and wake up with a headache.  
-  
It´s gotten dark. Time is passing way to quick today. George watches Nick standing up in a hurry. “Karl´s ready. I´ll be streaming now” he says briefly and off he goes. The other two stay to finish the episode of a series they only begun today. When it ends, George grabs the remote. “Do you want to watch another one?” he asks Clay, hoping he´d say yes because George was curious about the next episode. He doesn´t like cliffhangers, he´d rather continue watching. Clay thinks for a moment, but then he shakes his head. “It´s already 11 pm. We wanted to join Nick a bit as well” he reminds. George admits he´d rather not, but eventually he convinces himself talking with everyone will be fun too.  
-  
Both clean up the living room a bit before turning the lights off. Clay quickly refills their pets water bowls. George´s about to go up the stairs when Clay pauses. “George?” he asks to get his attention “When are you going to sleep today?” George frowns. He doesn´t need anyone to watch after his sleep schedule. “I don´t know. In 4 hours?” he replies annoyed. Clay hurries up the steps to him. “Will you let me sleep in your room tonight?” he asks silently but warming. George groans, but Clay notices that he´s not turning it down either.  
-  
Georges room is very chill. He forgot to close the window again. Clay doesn´t really mind, it´ll warm up eventually. The blonde already sits on the bed. He had put on his night clothing even before they begun to watch tv downstairs. He´s not looking over to George who´s changing behind the door of his wardrobe, he doesn´t want him to feel uncomfortable. He can´t help but notice Georges pajamas are slightly oversized ones. He likes it. Not in a strange way, he just thinks it fits him. Clay holds open the blanket as George crawls onto the bed.  
-  
Of course, Georges bed is not as big as Nicks, but it´s enough for both. Clay lays next to the wall, George´s beside him. The british has joined their voice chat on Discord, Clay was playing the stream on his phone with no sound. George didn´t want to boot up his laptop for that one hour they´ll talk. It is a pretty chill, relaxed stream. Delightful chat, just Nick and Karl screaming occasionally because they´re falling off or fighting mobs. Clay and George talk with them all the while, about game mechanics, viewer questions, or they´re joking about how dumb they act while playing. George barely moves around, he tries not to make it obvious that he´s laying in bed, even if Clays voice is muffled though the sheets sometimes. Nobody seems to notice though, George´s glad. He really doesn´t want people to spam that they sleep in the same bed. That’s just way to private.  
-  
It´s well over the one hour George had thought he´d stay. Clay was right, George is extremely tired, his eyes are dry, and his eyelids feel heavy. “Alright, I think I head to sleep now” Clay yawns, telling the audience. “I´ll stay a bit” George begins. Clay interrupts him with a jokingly “Oh come on, you sound like you´re already sleeping.” George dismisses him with a weak scoff. “I know you´re soooo tired” he teases, yawning without a sound, effectively bringing George to yawn in a definitely audible volume. Clay laughs at him. “Okay Goodnight” Clay quickly says, snatching Georges phone. He waits for Karl and Nick to say their goodbyes, then he hangs up. He also turns off the phone and puts it back on the nightstand alongside his own phone.  
-  
George doesn´t protest. Maybe it was obvious they both went quiet at the same time. Maybe. Clay´s still reaching over him to the nightstand, trying to turn off the light. George makes himself as slim as he can, so Clay reaches it. The room goes dark, but not completely. Some of the moons glow comes inside through the window. Clay can see George curling up beside him. The older boy finds a comfortable position quickly. His mind wanders around as he slowly slips into unconsciousness. He prays it doesn´t go anywhere bad. It does. The painful want of Nick being there instead of Clay. He knows he likes Clays company, bur he can´t help feeling a little bad. Clay wants to watch George falling asleep, but by that time he does, Clay himself is too dozed off to really notice. He doesn´t pull George closer to him. There´s a feeling telling him that he shouldn´t.  
\--  
Clay likes the way he´s slowly awakened by dim sunlight. It´s so peacefully quiet. He rolls over to face George. He´s still asleep, seemingly he didn´t move since falling asleep. Clay didn´t wake up through Georges sleep talking either. He´s glad he didn´t. Clay moves a little closer to George. His mind is at ease. He feels like this is all he cares about now, and he has it. He accidently brushes his hand by the bare skin of Georges stomach, his shirt had been pulled up a little. Georges body crumps a little. Where Clays handy cold or was he just sensitive?  
-  
Clay wakes up at 7am. When did he fell asleep again? He sits up, stretching his numb limbs. George reaches his hand up to him. In a sleepy manner, he only got one of his eyes partly open, the other side of his face is still buried in his pillow. Their eyes meet. Right before George touches Clays face, he lets his hand drop back down. He muffles a tiresome groan. Something frail flashes in Clays eyes, he brushes his hand trough Georges messy hair. George pushes himself up a little. Clay immediately leans into Georges hand as he brushes it along his cheek, holding it in place a little longer with his own hand. The british takes a long, dozy breath. “Good morning” he says raspy, but kind. “Moring, George” Clay mumbles into his hand. His breath is warm. George pulls on his hand slightly and Clay lets go of it. “My throat hurts” George coughs.  
-  
“Apple tea?” Clay asks while already filling mugs with hot water. George sits in the kitchen island, enjoying the morning calmness. He tilts his head without even looking to Clay. “Uhm…yeah, why not” he answers. Clay puts the teabag in and hands it to George. Clay backs away from him a little. George can have a hard time expressing his emotions. The way he´s acting towards Clay lately lets his heart beat warm. George feels something for him. It might not be the same way how Clay feels, almost certainly not, but he feels cared for. Strange how things began to feel between the three of them. But why?  
-  
Clays went to buy the groceries today. He goes on Tuesdays because it´s a lot less people around, usually. Nick had woken up in the meantime. Him and George turned on the radio in the kitchen. While on his laptop, George makes a few plans with Nick about streams or videos. Most of them they will never even try to record. But it´s fun talking. Nicks leaning back with his chair, he almost loses balance twice. Every pause that occurs during their talks give Nick time to think. There´s a light feeling of irritation he can´t shake off. Not for George, but Clay. Nick lets himself get upset over nothing. They both ignored him yesterday evening, even if he streamed. Clay just talks about not wanting to exclude anyone, but it´s hard. It might actually be harder than he imagined.  
-  
Outside is warmer than the day before. Georges dog runs around the garden. George watches him, he´s still a bit worried he´ll find a way to escape the fence. A faint breeze rustles through the nearby trees. It smells salty. George suddenly feels like he´d like to take a walk on the beach.   
-  
Clay puts down full bags. By the time Nick and George had left their room to get into the kitchen as well, Clay had put most of the things away. George pulls out a basket with a transparent foil wrapped around it, a soft ribbon holds it closed. It´s filled with fruit and cookies. “That’s a thank you from my sister” Clay tells him, placing down a pot with grass. “The cat grass?” Nick enters. “The basket” Clay repeats. George pulls on the ribbon and it opens the foil. Nick snatches a cookie. George looks at the ribbon up close. “Is that green or yellow?” he asks, more to himself. Clay looks up. “Light green” he puts the pot down and Patches is already there to sniff at it. Nick sits on the warm floor beside her, watching as she attempts to bite a straw. “She really likes that stuff” Nick says, Clay laughs.  
-  
“Let me tie a bow on her” Clay holds his hand out for George to hand him the ribbon. “You sure? This fabric is robust.” George tells him. “Is it really tearproof?” Clay yanks on it firmly. It doesn´t give in the slightest. “Okay, she could tear a claw out” he realizes. “Did she manage to do that before?” Nick sounds concerned. “Once. It bleeds a lot” Clay coughs. Clay puts the ribbon around Georges head instead of just giving it back. He ties a box on top. “You look like you´ve got a toothache” he jokes. George brushes it off his head.  
-  
“Do you know how to make tight knots?” Nick stood up. “I think I still know how they work” Clay remembers. “Show me one” Nick begs. “Uhm, yeah I can do that” the blonde opens the bow. “George give me your hands” he asks and George actually holds them out to him before pulling them back with a nervous ”Wait.” Clay giggles. “Relax dude you don´t have to give me both” he calms him. Clay shows Nick a few knots he had learned as a kid and George too listens careful.  
-  
Nick ends up trying to tie Georges hands together. The ribbon is long, so he does manage at some point to get it around his wrists and tie a knot. He even makes a messy little bow. And he gives George a quick smooch on the cheek. George is displeased to say the least. Especially when Nick doesn’t manage to open it anymore. “Dream!” George calls out. “Don´t call me that” Clay warns dry as he goes over to them. “You´re both idiots” he sighs. It takes him quite a while too to get it open. Georges hands hurt. “I´m sorry dude I´m just bad” Nick says half-hearted. George groans annoyed.  
-  
“By the way, how would you guys like going to the beach in the afternoon?” George suddenly asks happily. He´s not mad at Nick. “I´ve wanted to drive to a beach a few towns over” Clay tells them. “It´s not sand, but rocks. You want to go there today?” he sounds eager as well now. Nick can´t remember having any other plans for today. He´s glad they finally do something together again.  
-  
They´re just chilling on the couch, joking around and laughing at Twitter or TickTock, even though George got banned from there. They´re making fun of basically everything, not in a mean way. Soon they find videos and edits of fanart. They discuss what they would consider is crossing a line, George just listens to them. He thought he´ll be uncomfortable once they would get to talk about how the fandom sees their relationships, but he´s fine joking along.  
-  
Nick tries to slowly get the conversation into the topic of relationships between more than 2 people. He thinks George cachets onto what he´s trying to imply, but Clay talks way too unhinged about everything. It´s not exactly flirting, it´s just the type of casual it shouldn´t be. Warming up doesn´t work. George backs away from something that isn´t there. Yet.  
-  
After a brief lunch they pack Clays car. “How long are we going to drive?” George asks Clay while picking up his bag. “An hour maybe” he guesses. George picks up his dogs leash in response, which causes the dog to run downstairs and to them. It sits there, wagging its tail and looking at George and Clay.  
-  
The car ride is fun. They sing a lot, Clay opens the windows almost right away because it´s so warm. Georges dog appreciates this especially. It waddles on Georges lab, onto the seat, looks out the window, lays down and then repeats. George´s on the backseat, Nick and Clay in front. He knew his dog will move around a lot. George is in a good mood, he giggles a lot, Nick jokes around as well. Clay rather concentrates on driving. From time to time he complains when the other two begin to jokingly fight again.  
-  
George sits in shallow water, playing fetch with his dog. He bought a soft ball made for playing in the water. His dog likes to chew on it. Judging by all its toys it wracked in a matter of days, it´ll probably be broken by the time they get back home. The water here is crystal clear, almost transparent if it wasn´t for its natural blurriness. The sun warms Georges skin. He splashes water on himself occasionally, so he won´t get a sunburn or overheat.   
-  
The other two relax on the sun loungers they booked for the day. Nick´s under the shades, Clay lets the burning sunshine on him. He enjoys heating up while dozing off. Nick´s listening to music, sometimes peering over to Clay to see if he´s awake. He piles some rocks up. It´s way too hot for him to lay in the sun like that. He turns off the music and pulls out the headphones. He wants to listen to the sounds of the beach a bit. Seagulls calling from up in the sky, people chattering, the sound of people walking on the stones. After a while Clay sits up. “You´re boiling already?” Nick jokes. Clay sighs. “I´m melting, dude. Let´s go in the water.”  
-  
Clay and Nick walk past George, who wants to stay in the shallow for now. Clay submerges into the cold water as soon as he can. Nick almost expected the water to hiss. There´s no way Clay hasn´t gotten a sunburn. They both swim out a bit further. They can´t stand anymore quickly. They swim into what Nick assumes is already very deep water. Clay suggests they turn around before they come along an underwater current. Nicks stomach drops even thinking about being sucked further and further out into the ocean, no matter how much he´ll fight against it. He tries swimming faster than Clay as they turn around. He wants to catch up to be next to him. Maybe he´s just a bit on edge, but he´s afraid of jellyfish now as well. Nick giggles as he reaches for Clay and cling onto his shoulders, the skin is very warm. Nick thought Clay would guess what he´s doing and fight him off, but he just continues swimming. Nick feels Clays muscles move, it feels like they´re almost cramping every time he moves, so Nick lets go. “Didn´t that hurt?” he asks as Clay stays quiet. “No, you´re just heavy” he teases. They try to outswim the other or push them underwater, careful of course, but still forcefully.  
-  
Kind of out of breath they float towards George, who had gone a bit deeper. It´s shallow enough for his dog to stand and deep enough for a human to still float without touching the stones on the bottom. George smiles as they come closer. “I could hear you guys laugh all the way from here” he claims. Nick stands up next to George again, putting a hand on his back. George squeals as drips of water run down his skin. Nick realizes the brown-haired boys skin is equally heat up as Clays. “You´ll overheat, George. Get underwater!” he says, half mockingly, half worried. “It´s cold” George groans. “Just throw him” Clay says casually.  
-  
Georges dog barks at them as George and Nick fight and chase each other. Clay makes sure the dog doesn´t swim over to them. Judging by their carelessness, the dog would probably get water into it´s ears, and that´s not really optimal. Nick grabs George and wanders out into deeper water with him, He makes sure George cools down by pulling him with himself under water. “You better hold your breath” Nick laughs and George can only do as much as that, Nick hold George tight when he lets himself dive down. They both submerge underwater. Bubbles rise up. Clay watches from afar. Is George scared to go into deeper water because of that jellyfish last time or was he just keeping an eye on his dog?  
-  
Clay gets back to their place with the dog a bit before George and Nick leave the water. He dries off quickly. George goes to drink some cooled water. He must admit to a small headache. Maybe just his imagination. Clay stands up again to rummage through their bag that hangs from their parasol. George forces his eyes away. It feels weird to acknowledge how fit he looks. “You want an iced coffee, George?” Clay looks down as he finally pulls out his wallet. “Wouldn’t be too bad” he replies, looking away still. He hopes Clay didn´t see the light embarrassment on Georges face. If he did, he doesn´t react. “What do you want, Nick?” Clay turns hi head to Nick sitting on the other side of the lounger George´s sitting. “Iced coffee sound good to me” he asks. Clay puts on his flip flips and heads away “I´ll be back in a bit.”  
-  
The iced coffee tastes surprisingly good. It´s a little sweet, lots of small ice cubs swim around, but it doesn´t taste watery at all. George lets some cubes run in his mouth with every swallow to crush them beneath his teeth. Nick has finished his drink first and now scrolls through his camera roll. He had taken some photos throughout the day. He´d like to post some on Twitter or Instagram, but he assumes he won´t. Most of them have either Clay in them or they´re just dumb looking on purpose. He shows some of the to his friends. George likes a picture Sap made of him with just his head sticking out of the water. Looks silly. Nick sends it to George, who takes is as a picture on his Twitter.  
-  
The three of them play a bit beach volleyball while Georges dog naps at their place right next to them. They´re throwing the ball around, at the beginning like it´s intended to, but later just barely beach volleyball at all. Clay always tries to hit George and Nick with sharply shots. George and Nick smile constantly, George loudly screams every time the ball hits him or when he misses. They´re pretty much busier laughing than actually playing.  
-  
All their stuff is packed inside the car as the sky begins to darken. The car ride takes long enough for the whole sunset to begin and end. Nick leans on the window, enjoying the last moments of todays sun. Everything is so calm, so nice.  
-  
George figured today was already filled with enough action, like they did much together. George is kind of tired at this point, and so is Nick. Clay is in the mood to stream, so he quickly comes up with an idea, but decides on just speed run and talk. George doesn´t want to spend the rest of the evening alone. Since Nick announced that he wants some time alone, George joined Clay in his room. He´s happy enough to just have someone near him, he just relaxes in Clays bed while the younger boy streams.  
-  
Clay is entertaining his stream alone. George stays quiet, he´s on his phone mostly, not even paying attention to what his friend´s doing. Clay didn´t put his headphones on to let George listen if he wants to at some point. A faint creak from the door and Patches enters. She ignores George and walks straight to Clays desk, jumping up and generally being in the way. “Patches” Clay greets his cat softly. He pats her at first, but afterwards he´s just annoyed. “Cat, get off my mouse” he complains. Patches was again punching Clays mouse when he moves it. George throws his phone on the mattress, stans up and reaches on Clays desk. “Don´t mind if I do” the british says casually, picking Patches up. The cat lets out a silent meow of protest.  
-  
The blonde giggles lightly as George lays back down while holding her. A few second the cat stays on his chest, them she slips down. She doesn´t jump off the bed, like Clay expected. Patches walks round George a bit, kneading the mattress to find a comfy place and finally settling down. George gasps softly because she pushes her body against his thigh. Clay laughs again. “She likes you finally” he jokes. Chat was curious. “Patches just like used George as a pillow” Clay says as he returns to his game.  
-  
George watches Clays face. The room is entirely dark except the light going of Clays monitors. Clay had joined another Minecraft server aside the dream SMP, he´s not planning on staying there for long, just helping someone with the story they´re trying to build up. Clay talks quiet, He put his headphones on after ending the short stream because of the lore he´s helping with. Sadly. George would´ve wanted to know what they´re doing, but he guesses Clay doesn´t want to be loud in case Nick was trying to fall asleep or something. Patches jumps off the bed, leaving Georges thigh suddenly cold. The brown-haired boy doesn´t really care. He just watches as Clays face changes emotions. He´s very good in putting emotion into his voice, George now sees that he is putting emotion onto his face and acting them out exaggerated when his voice needs to be meaningful. It´s fascinating for George to watch. He´s staring without even noticing himself doing so.  
-  
The light gets turned on when Clay shuts his laptop off, so they´re not left in total darkness. Clay goas to take a bath to get the smell of sea water out of his hair, George goes to shower as well. Nick had texted him, asking if he wants to sleepover tonight. George already replied with a “Maybe”, but it says there that Nick hadn´t seen the message yet. He takes a shower.  
-  
Clay baths in very hot water again. Patches balances on the side of the bathtub, he has to be careful that he doesn´t slip and fall in. She did that a lot as a kitten. She never learns. Clay smiles. He almost gets shampoo in his eyes when he hears Patches jump while washing his hair. Thankfully, she doesn´t give herself a bath this night. Clay gives himself time to soak in the water a little longer, to just realize how strange the last few days had been. Strange but nice.  
-  
He leaves the downstairs bathroom unintended quietly. Clay thinks Nick might be asleep already. Instead, he hears fait voices. Nick and George are in his room and they talk with lowered voices. Clay convinces himself to not listen to their words, but he hears his name. He sneaks closer to the door.  
-  
“I can´t do this” George tells Nick in all honesty. Nick strokes Georges back, but stays quiet himself. “It´s just strange that our behavior with each other changes so often. It doesn´t feel right at all. It´s always that someone is alone” he spills. Clays stomach aches. Nick sounds hurt. “Does that mean we…” his voice fades into silence. “I love both of you” George murmurs. “I like you the way you like me§ he looks into Nicks eyes. “And I-I like Clay the way you like him as well” he stammers. Clay almost can´t hold back a sharp inhale. What is he saying? Did George mean everything they do just platonic? But he knew what Clay feels. He knew. “You´re just shying away, Gogy. You´ll regret not even tying later” Nick tells him, George can´t really decide on what to believe. “I don´t know” he answers. “My point” Nick repeats. “Give yourself time” Nick whispers, giving George a kiss on his forehead. “And be honest to yourself” he smiles as he sees the worried emotion fade out of his friends eyes. “You´re right” George yawns as he curls up beside Nick, who turns off the lamp on his nightstand.  
-  
Clay searches his way back to his room in the darkness. Is his head spinning or is it just that he can´t see anything? He feels like he´s just been hit by cold water. George is playing with him. He always seemed so sincere, so genuine. They´re all still not talking open hearted with each other, and frankly that´s disaster waiting to happen. Clay massages his family. They wanted him to come over for a day or two again. Now seems like the perfect time. By the time he´s back, he got his mind cleared and hopefully so would the other two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I´m sorry if i use words or phrases wrong. Pls just ignore, ty!  
> Also, this fic is still sooo messy, my apologies.  
> Ty for reading!


	12. Salty tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What are we going to do now?  
> (Final chapter)

Clay barely slept that night, and he woke up early as well. He has packed his baggage right after booking his ticket that night. He leaves quickly. Nick and George are left wondering. He did tell them we´ll visit family soon, but neither of them thought it´ll be that soon.  
-  
Even the whole morning up until lunchtime is warm. George and Nick stay inside for now. They decide on finally baking something together, they had made plans on making cookies together quite a while back. They drive to the store and buy lots of baking stuff. That alone rises their enthusiasm. George wants to make chocolate chip cookies, Nick wants to make muffins.  
-  
Nick heats the oven and puts the cold baking trays down on the kitchen island. George begins to steer some softened butter and sugar together. Nick watches as he ads eggs and vanilla extract. He hands him the prepared flour and baking soda right after. George puts in the chocolate chips and a bit of salt and mixes it briefly again. George takes a bit of the dough, shapes them into small balls and lays it down on the trays. Nick imitates him to help. The remaining chocolate chips get placed on top. Nick tries to recreate George´s goggles and a creeper face, George makes a flame and a smiley.  
-  
While the cookies bake, they begin with the muffins. This time, George puts some muffin liners into the baking molds, while Nick begins mixing the ingredients. Flour, sugar, salt and baking powder go first. George puts an egg, milk and a bit of oil into a bowl and mixes it so Nick can put the flour mix in right away. The dough is fluffy. The cookies already fill the room with a dreamy smell. George gets them out of the oven while Nick gently adds the blueberries.  
-  
While the muffins bake, George and Nick decided to sit down and taste the still warm cookies. Going to the table is way to exhausting, they just sit down on the floor in front of the oven. They don´t care about the warmth it emits, they sit too close to each other anyway to expect any kind of chilly sensations. The cookies are chewy, sweet, and crumbly. Nick wipes some melted chocolate from Georges lips. They´re both giggling all the time, they don't take themselves seriously.  
-  
George puts the muffins and cookies away into airtight containers. They could´ve eaten more, but lunch’s soon. Eating too much sugary stuff beforehand will just end into them eating too little of their lunch and already being hungry by the next hour. Not like today´s something special to eat. Grilled chicken and vegetables.  
-  
George cleans up his room. He dusts off, he vacuums. He´s unusually slow without really noticing it. He´s finally finished, but he doesn´t want to leave his room or go downstairs. The house is too quiet, so peaceful. George goes to clear his laptop. It´s about time, and that shows. Again though, George is slow. He searches longer for music as background sounds than working concentrated. He doesn´t know what Nick´s doing. Probably playing some games by himself, no streaming, no recording.  
-  
George fell asleep by his desk. Somewhen in the middle of the night he wakes up again. His neck hurts. As he stands up his bones crack, it feels good. He closes his laptop and wanders out the door. He couldn´t care less if it´s 1am, 11pm or 7am. Subconsciously, he makes his way down the stairs. He stands in the hallway. His tired mind just wants to sleep. Which door is to Nick´s room again? George pushes himself against the first door to the left. The handle pushes down silently. He stumbles into a cold, dark room. George blinks into the darkness. The smells of the room pull him in.  
-  
His heart finally gives into the longing feeling he ignored since the morning. He drops into Clays bed. The sheets are cold. George lolls around until he´s comfortable. He hates this. He hates how he feels. How he pushed Clay away when he was so near. How he realizes that that wasn´t even near enough. And the worst thing about this is that Clay left because of him. Because George chose to say things he wasn´t even sure if he meant them like that. He has a feeling Clay heard them. It makes him feel even sicker. George clings onto the pillow. His eyes are dry, He couldn´t cry, even if he wants to. His body refuses. He clenches his fingers into the sheets. Falling asleep to cold, familiar smells almost doesn´t hurt over his heavy sleepiness.  
\--  
Nick wakes up at 5am. Too early to get up. He rolls around aimlessly before just standing up with a big sigh. He´s not falling asleep in this bed any time soon. He goes up the stairs to peak inside Georges room. A whole lot of confusion hit him upon stumbling over a cold, empty bed. Nick hurries back down, he carefully pushes the gap of the door to Clays room wider open. There he finds George, sleeping peacefully. Nick leaves as quietly as he entered, back into his room.  
-  
Nick spends the following four hours slipping in and out of consciousness until it´s finally about the time he usually wakes. Breakfast isn´t as heavy as usual. Just a slice of toast or two with butter or jam. Nick packs some food for their lunch they´ll eat at the beach later. George just watches, but Nick notices that Georges eyes look right though him. Nick just ignores the suffocating feeling tingling in the back of his head. He feels loved, sure. The way George treats him warms his heart, even if he doesn´t express affection as openly as Nick or Clay do. Clay. Why won´t George just commit to his feelings? Now he´s aching.  
-  
The weather is as nice as it can be. The air is warm, but not heavy, a salty breeze flows to them. The shallow waters near their lighthouse are already warmed up by early noon. They float in the water a bit, talking about nonsense. Nick sits up, the water reaches up to his waist. He looks at the sky. He sees the soothing, pale blue and the few faint, almost transparent clouds. The sun blinds him, he blinks a few times, but he has to look away. His eyes follow George who slowly floats to him, pushing himself forward on the sand close below. “Nick?” Georges voice is calm, vulnerable.  
-  
The older one crawls around in circles, gracefully floating, letting the water pass over his back a few times. Nick hums to let George know he´s waiting for him to continue. “Clay heard us yesterday” he says, almost light-hearted. Nick feels an incoming headache. As if it couldn´t get any worse. “That´s your fault” he groans. George blows bubbles underwater. “Clay comes home tonight, if he´s not mad that is” Nick looks directly into Georges eyes. “Just say- I love you Dream-, you´ll be alright“ Nick jokes. George giggles flustered. He´d appreciate George saying something along those lines to him.  
-  
(Tw: Kissing; skip to next paragraph)  
The british swims in front of Nick and sits up. Their eyes meet. Nick leans backwards a bit as George gets closer. Georges brushes by Nicks legs. He puts his hands against Nicks chest once he finally leans in, but he still pauses for a brief moment. George can see Nicks eyes looking at his lips through partly closed eyes. Nervous, George licks his lips. He brushes a warm kiss on Nick, but slips off him right after. Nick smiles at George, who blushes even more. “I love you, Gogy” he giggles. “Shut up” George looks away, smiling softly, too.  
-  
Eating lunch together, hiding under their parasol from the merciless hot midday sun while listening to quiet music. Moments like these were the reason George fantasized long about finally meeting up with his friends. It almost seems impossible that today is only the 21st day of living here. He just prays all the future days won´t be as confusing as the last week. “Let´s take a walk up the beach” George asks Nick. “Sounds nice” he stands up. “Let´s get some sun cream on first” he suggests quickly. They walk for a long time. There´s not many people, a light breeze. How calming.  
-  
The plane lands. Clay´s got a nasty headache. It wasn´t comfortable at all, and on top of that the most stressful flight he had in quite a while. Nick picks him up from the airport. Clay´s too tired to care about not being greeted by George.  
-  
Back at home, Clay just puts his baggage in one corner of his room. He takes a cold shower. The cool water calms his head a bit. The way back to his room is dragging. The house is quiet. Great. He can go to sleep. Clay throws on some random short pajamas and falls into his bed. Is it just his imagination or do his sheets smell different? His mind wanders to George. No, probably something else. He lets out a big, drowsy sigh.  
-  
The door opens, someone quietly looks inside. “Hello, Clay. How was your flight?” George asks once he sees that Clay´s not asleep. God, why. “Can I come in?” he pushes. No. “Yes” Clay sits up. George sits down beside him. “Are you mad?” George asks carefully. Yes. “No” Clay says. An awkward silence fills the room. “Do…you want me to leave?” George asks, Clay looks over to him. “I want you to be honest with me” Clay sighs. He leaves George no time to answer, the blonde leans back with a scoff. “I feel like you´re only in my room when things are difficult between us” he jokes, more heavy-hearted than anything else.  
-  
George stares at the ground. Clay´s here. He wants to find the right words for his feelings, he doesn´t want to hurt Clay, or him, or Nick. Suddenly, his head is empty, he looks at Clay, who refuses to back at him. George goes into autopilot, he just pulls his legs up. That movement catches Clays eye. George basically jumps forward, knocking Clay down onto the bed right after wrapping his arms around him. They lay there in silence again, this time accompanied with a warm feeling. “I do love you” George whispers. Clays heart explodes. He doesn´t talk, he just buries his face in Georges hair.  
-  
Nick stands in the doorway, coughing awkwardly “You got no room for me?” George sits up, stretching his arm out to the door, Nick crawls to them on the bed. They sit in front of each other. George looks at the sheets below him, he smiles, but tears begin to run. Confused, Clay strokes his shoulder. Strange how George kept his calm in so many rough moments and now he just sits there, helpless. He feels cared for, Clay und Nick hold him. They know he´s not sad, just relieved. Nick gently kisses his forehead, George looks up, thankful. Clay leans closer to him, just brushing his face against Georges, eyes closed. No kiss, no words, just sincere affection. Nick leans a bit against Clay to let him know George wasn´t the only one he was allowed to like. That promptly earns Nick a swift kiss. He blushes lightly under Clays smile.  
-  
None of them can grasp on what the future would be like, frankly they just want to live this moment. Relieve, warmth, comfort, easiness. Love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank all of you for reading!! I grew into not liking what I wrote during the last few chapters, so the ending is a bit short and rushed.  
> Still, ty for reading the story until the end! Appreciate it :)


End file.
